


Post-Apocalypse Punk

by Havoka



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: AU where Hana lives in Australia because idk, Gen, Junker D.Va - Freeform, and their star Architech come to reshape the Outback, as well as everyone's favorite imperialistic international megacorporation, now featuring Wasteland!Ana, that Junker skin in-game needs SOME sort of explanation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-09-02 15:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 89,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8672167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havoka/pseuds/Havoka
Summary: The omnium explosion lay waste to her home and destroyed pretty much everything she ever knew - yet Hana survived. Amidst a sea of criminals she met good people. She discovered that the outback might not be such a hopeless wasteland after all.Unfortunately, a certain megacorporation came to the same conclusion.





	1. The End of Days

Sometimes Hana thought back on her old life. Not often, but sometimes. A life of relative luxury, with a helping of minor celebrity status from a rising MLG career on the side.

That all went away when a bunch of idiots decided to blow up a radioactive omnium factory a couple hundred kilometers from her home. It was almost incredible how many people died. Her own parents sickened and died from radiation poisoning in a matter of days. Hana fell ill as well, but somehow, for better or worse, she survived. Never quite the same – the skin of her hands and forearms began peeling off in chunks, leaving pure white bone visible in several places, and she developed a terrible cough, like a middle-aged smoker. Her legs were also littered with scars from crawling through shrapnel and scrap.

But Hana Song was too young to die. She scavenged a pair of thick leather gloves, some boots, and a scratched-up pair of motorcycle goggles to withstand the unencumbered harsh winds that gusted across the leveled wasteland. She sought out other survivors, but all were either dead or dying by the time she found them.

The radiation, while apparently not fatal to Hana, changed her in more than just physical ways. As she consumed irradiated food rations and drank contaminated water in a desperate stab at survival, her thoughts clouded, and she often found herself struggling to recall older memories. But there was something in the back of her mind that she could not forget. A sensation…a comfort. Something that had brought her great joy in an uncertain and tumultuous childhood.

That dormant memory reactivated when she came across a familiar-looking object sticking out of a scrap heap. Her eyes lit up as she latched on to what initially appeared to be a joystick of some kind – and they widened even further when her pulling on it exposed the rusty skeleton of some sort of mechanical suit. She arrived quickly at the conclusion that it must have been the remains of one of those power loaders they used to use in factories to lift heavy objects, back when human factory labor was still a thing. It was beat to hell and blown open in several places, having apparently taken the brunt of the impact of an explosion somewhere along the line.

Hana’s first thought beyond identifying the object was finding a use for it. She cleared away the debris that had settled over most of the mech. The suit had a cockpit that could potentially be crawled into for shelter on three sides. All she would have to do was throw a tarp or something over the front, and she’d at least have some shelter from the unrelenting Outback weather. As it was she was already a bit loopy from heat exposure. Or maybe it was the irradiated rat she’d caught and eaten earlier in the day. Hard to tell.

The mech felt like a perfect fit when she crawled inside it. Her gloved hands wrapped around the joystick things, bringing her an immediate sense of comfort. The control panel was in surprisingly good shape considering the suit’s wrecked exterior. She could remember fixing things like this in the past. Controllers and such…she had always liked tinkering with electronics. That much she could clearly recall.

The wind was beginning to pick up again. Securing her goggles, Hana hunkered down inside the mech. Maybe she could spend the night in here. Sure it had some holes blown in it, but any bit of shelter was better than where she was currently staying…which was nowhere.

The wind kicked up dust all around her. Hana coughed, a wheezy, rattling sound, and shielded her face in the crook of her arm. Thankfully within the mech suit the strong wind was abated, granting her a moment of precious retreat from its otherwise-constant battering.

Unfortunately she had to venture back out into the elements to find some cover for the front of the mech. She managed to find a sheet of metal with only a few holes in it. Hana positioned it in front of the cockpit as she clambered back inside. It was so nice and quiet in there, the howling wind unable to penetrate the metal exoskeleton. After listening for several minutes to ensure nothing was coming after her, she managed to get comfortable enough to allow herself a short nap. Curled up inside the giant machine, she almost felt safe. Almost.

 

* * *

 

Days of tinkering with the power loader suit revealed to Hana something quite surprising. Apparently she was more adept at tinkering than she gave herself credit for, for when she was finished messing around with the discarded mech it was actually in decent working order. Well, physically anyway – it didn’t have any juice left in it to power on. It was basically a giant scrap metal shelter for her to sleep in – until the day she stumbled across something potentially quite useful. That “something” was an old-as-hell car battery. With a little rigging, she actually managed to get the mech groaning to life. “Whoa!” She nearly fell out the front of the machine as a tug of its controller sticks sent it leaping to its feet. A few giggles escaped her as she pushed the sticks forward, suddenly reminded of an old PC game she used to play years ago. Mech…something. Mech…MechWarrior! She loved those games. She’d been damn good at them, too.

The old mech wasn’t the most mobile thing on the planet, but it could certainly get around. With some modifications she could easily turn it into her go-to method of travel through the Outback.

She was, in fact, stomping gleefully through the wasteland when a loud noise, an explosion of some kind, stopped her in her tracks. She turned the mech clunkily around in time to see a plume of smoke rise on the distant horizon. “Hm?” She took a few steps toward it, shielding her eyes from the sun to try to get a better look. She didn’t see or hear anything after the initial explosion. Could it have been a human survivor? Maybe it was an omnic. Or maybe it was a confrontation between the two.

Either way, Hana decided to steer clear of it. She gave her mech a light pat on its control panel and encouraged it to take her where she wanted to go without falling apart. With a whirr of its tired old engines it planted its “feet” into the dirt before them and carried Hana away from whatever lay in the direction of the now-dissipating smoke cloud. It didn’t turn her thoughts from it, though. She pondered it for the rest of the night.


	2. Neobedouins

Of the things in her old life that she remembered, there were some Hana did not miss. Little things, things that were expected of her but were not in any way rewarding or fun. Shaving was one of those things. It still sometimes felt strange to her lifting her arms and seeing a mass of wiry, dark hair under there, but honestly, when death from starvation, radiation, or any other number of grisly fates lurked around every corner, hairy armpits didn’t seem too big a threat. And honestly she was thankful to have hair at all. It had been falling out of her scalp in chunks for a while after the destruction of the omnium factory.

It was probably a good thing no one else was around, too, because going a good few weeks without a proper bath didn’t exactly leave her smelling like a rose. When the wind occasionally died down Hana would catch a whiff of something that smelled like roadkill, then with some degree of embarrassment she would realize it was her own stench. She may not have missed shaving, but she damn sure missed showering.

Thankfully her trusty mech couldn’t judge her. She spent most of her time inside it now, roaming the wastes for food and useful bits of scrap. She tried to see it as a game, like she was piloting a military robot in a first person shooter. Relating it to fiction helped her to avoid dwelling on the horrifying reality that this was her life now. That her home was destroyed, her parents were dead, and she was probably going to roam the ruins of her city until she died of starvation or radiation poisoning.

_SNAP!_

Something caught the left leg of her mech and caused it to stumble. Hana was barely able to right it in time to prevent falling face-first into the dirt. _What the…?_

She leaned out of the mech to see what its foot was caught on. To her surprise, it looked like a bear trap. Or some kind of modified one, anyway. It held fast to her mech’s heavy metal leg. Even attempting to move the leg forward didn’t shake the trap off. The machine was completely stuck.

"Oi, it's a bloody omnic!"

Hana struggled to turn around inside the mech to see the source of the voice. In the distance she caught sight of an odd-looking little man with a peg leg and a giant tire strapped to his back. He was standing atop a tall, ragged rock, holding some kind of makeshift-looking weapon. He was half-turned, seemingly shouting to someone behind him. "Should I blow 'em up??"

"I'm not an omnic!" Hana shouted, slipping out the mech's exit door on its back. "I'm human!"

The man gave pause. She noticed him drop some sort of round metal device to the ground beside him and pull what looked like a trigger button from his pocket. With an explosion and a wild burst of laughter, suddenly the man was flying through the air. He crashed into the dirt a few feet away from her.

Hana hung close to her mech. The guy was probably a looter. And she had invested far too much time and energy into this mech suit to let it be stolen from her just like that.

After dusting himself off, the man looked Hana and her mech up and down.

"You build this?" was all he asked.

"Not really.” She kept her tone as calm as possible. “I found it lying in a scrap heap and just fixed it up."

"Thought so." The man hopped around the mech in a circle, taking it in from all angles. "This is one of those ol' power loaders. I'd recognize it anywhere." He returned his attention to Hana after a minute. "You managed to get one of these pieces of junk working?"

Hana shrugged. "It needs a lot of...upkeep. It will break if I'm not around to fix it."

The man grinned, exposing a mouthful of rotten yellow teeth. "Oi. Good strategy there. Can't sell me the mech without the repair service."

"It's not for sale. It's mine." Hana found herself wishing she'd made time to install weapons on it like she had planned to. Even a couple of simple guns would be useful right now.

With a chuckle, the man approached the back door of the mech. After checking it out for a moment, he attempted to climb inside. He was able to slip partway in, but his lanky body could not bend enough to fit inside the tiny cockpit. "Aw hell, who's this made for anyways?? Damn Chinese..."

Hana's eye twitched. "I'm Korean."

"Whatever."

It was a bit of a struggle for the man to back himself out of the mech. Once he finally managed to do so he wiped a bit of sweat from his brow and exhaled. "Well. If I can't have that mech for meself, then I guess I'll have to recruit ya!"

Hana folded her arms. "Recruit me for what?"

The man threw his arms out in a theatrical display of enthusiasm. "For the JUNKERS!"

Hana continued to stand there with her arms folded, bathing the man in an apathetic stare.

The man's arms slowly retreated to his sides, but his enthusiasm was not quelled. "We're a band a' human survivors here in the Outback. Makin' our own society. Livin' by our own laws. It's great!"

That broke through Hana's apathy a tiny bit. "Band of human survivors? There's more than just you?"

He turned back to the rocky cliff he'd blown himself off of. "'Ey, Roadie! C'mon out!"

Hana's eyes widened as a gigantic man emerged from behind the rock. Clad in little more than scrap armor made of spikes and hunks of tire, as well as a gas mask, and wielding a spiked scythe with an iron chain attached, he looked like something out of a video game. His massive stomach was tattooed with a pig and some flames, and she noticed his mask had a pig nose.

"This here's my partner in crime, Roadhog!" The small man elbowed the bigger man lightly in the stomach. "She fixed up one of them old power loaders. Think she could be useful with the Junkers?"

Hana could hear the big man, Roadhog apparently, breathing through his mask. It was a heavy, raspy sound, much worse than even her irradiated lungs sounded. He gave a wordless shrug as a response.

“I didn’t say I wanted to join your group,” Hana huffed. “Why should I go off with a couple of strange men I’ve never met before? That’s like, Girl Safety 101.”

Roadhog withdrew a length of chain from his side. Before he could do anything with it, the small man stopped him. “Whoa, hey, let’s at least try to be, uh, what’s the word? Dipla…dipla…” He scratched his head, then shrugged. “Anyway, ya can’t just be hookin’ everyone all the time. You’re gonna make us look bad!”

Roadhog stared at him, still not saying a word. Hana took a step back from both of them. “So…yeah…I think I’m gonna be going now.”

“Wait!” The small man grabbed her by the arm, his diplomacy apparently forgotten. “We’re supposed to be recruitin’ for the Junkers. And I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but we’re bloody terrible at it.”

Roadhog shrugged his broad shoulders, still twirling the chain he had apparently planned to “hook” Hana with.

“We’re a group of survivors – some smart, some strong, all of us tough as nails. A lady with your kind of buildin’ skills, well, we’ve been lookin’ for someone like you.” He paused for a moment, then, with a grin, added, “You any good with explosives, by the by?”

“I’ve…never tried,” Hana replied.

The man’s eyes widened, and his demeanor instantly changed. He released her arm, and instead slung an arm over her shoulder. His unwashed stench was even worse than hers. He also smelled like he’d recently been on fire. “Oh, you’d love it. If you come with us the Junkers’ll give ya all the explosives you can explosiv…ize!”

“…Explode?” she corrected in a flat tone.

“Whatever.”

She stopped to glance back at her mech, and the wasteland around it. There was nothing out here. She was slowly dying in the heat and waste, and slowly losing her mind from being alone every waking moment. Did she really have anything to lose?

“I’ll check out your little survivor group,” she finally said. “But if I don’t like it, I’m leaving. And I’m staying in my mech the whole time, so don’t try to stop me.”

The man visibly brightened. “Oh, great! You’re gonna love it, I can already tell.” He stuck his hand out for Hana to shake. “Name’s Jamison by the way. They mostly call me Junkrat, though.”

She reluctantly shook his disgusting hand. “I’m Hana.”

The man, “Junkrat”, continued to ramble on as Hana climbed up into the mech. “We’ll have to get you some guns for that ol’ mech. Some guns, some boosters…yeah, it’ll be great. You’ll be blowin’ things up in no time!”


	3. Too Far to Turn Back

“So you’re tellin’ me that in your entire life, you’ve never blown one single thing to smithereens??”

For a guy with a peg leg, Junkrat seemed to have little trouble keeping up with Hana’s mech. Roadhog didn’t seem to have much trouble with it, either. She was more than a little surprised.

“I mean, I’m not, like, opposed to it,” she responded. “I’ve just never really had a chance to.”

Junkrat paused to look her mech over, tapping his chin. “You know, I bet we could rig up this bad boy with a big ol’ self-destruct button. Once we install some boosters…it’d be like a big, self-propelling bomb! Hahahahaha!”

Hana didn’t respond. It didn’t seem to matter, because Junkrat just continued rambling on about all the various explosive devices he’d constructed for the Junkers. After a while he seemed to lose interest in his own topic, for he then switched to humming some hideous, off-key tune.

It felt like they’d been walking for years by the time Hana noticed something noteworthy in the distance. A large building of some kind. It had plain brown walls and a high fence around it, and was two stories tall. As they drew closer, she realized it was a prison. “Is this it?”

“Yep. Our Base of Operations!”

Junkrat hobbled excitedly ahead of Hana and Roadhog. When he reached the fence he tugged on a rope that rung what appeared to be some kind of scavenged old church bell. A few moments passed with no visible response. Then suddenly a small, wiry humanoid…thing dropped nimbly to the ground from a second-story window on the other side of the fence. Its skin was gray-brown and it had long, claw-like nails on its hands and bare feet. Perhaps most prominent and disturbing, however, was the large animal skull it wore on its head, completely obscuring its face and hair.

Hana shuddered involuntarily. And here she’d thought the skin of her hands melting off was a horrifying fate. At least she hadn’t ended up like this thing.

The creature loped over to Junkrat. “Oi mate, let us in,” Junkrat said. “We got ourselves a new recruit!”

“ _Potential_ new recruit,” Hana corrected. The more she saw of this place the more she was reconsidering her agreement.

The creature climbed up the high fence with seemingly no effort, undoing a series of locks and latches that eventually allowed a small panel of the fence to slide open. Junkrat hurried inside, beckoning for Hana and Roadhog to follow. Hana couldn’t help but give pause when she passed the Junker wearing the animal skull. It leaned in and gave her a sniff. Then it let her pass.

The inside of the “base” was as decrepit as the outside. The walls were a dingy off-white, and the place was lit with a spare few lightbulbs powered by whirring generators. It was obvious the place had been a prison until just recently, but all of the cells had been converted into rooms full of mismatched, scavenged furniture and dirty-looking survivors.

“So where ya been staying?” Junkrat asked her as he led them to somewhere in the center of the prison.

Hana gave a reserved shrug as response. She didn’t want to disclose too much information to these people. Let them think she had another group and was just out scouting or something. Maybe trying to gauge whether or not these “Junkers” were any sort of threat to them.

“Shrugsville?” Junkrat had a stupid grin on his face. Hana shrugged again. Truthfully, the name of her true hometown was difficult for her to recall these days. The radiation poisoning had definitely done a number on her memory, with long-term seemingly the most affected. Maybe it was sort of a blessing in disguise, since it helped her to move on from her parents’ deaths. It was a lot easier to grieve two people you could barely remember.

Junkrat led them into what must have been some sort of office before everything went to hell. The mech didn’t fit through the doorway. “I’m not leaving it behind,” Hana said. “Is there any other door?”

Junkrat let out another burst of crazed giggles. “Mate, you’re in a power loader! Just smash your way through!”

Hana blinked. “You want me to just…wreck the doorway?”

“Smash! It! Smash! It! Smash! It!” Junkrat pumped a fist encouragingly.

Hana hesitated. Then, with a push of one joystick, the left arm of the mech shot out and smashed into the old wall. To her surprise, pieces of the wall began to break off and fall to the floor from the impact. A few more blows from the mech and the doorway was wide enough for it to fit through.

The moment she stepped through the doorway, Hana froze. Seated in a torn-up old office chair was a woman in a gas mask different from Roadhog’s in that her eyes and forehead were visible. She had dark skin and long, dreadlocked hair. She was dressed in a long leather jacket, and leather gloves similar to Hana’s. Her feet were propped up on an old, dirty desk, revealing a pair of extremely worn combat boots.

“You gonna redecorate the rest of my office, too?” Despite being said through a gas mask her question was clear as day.

“Ta-da!” Junkrat threw his hands out in Hana’s direction. “Look at our newest recruit! And you said me’n Roadie couldn’t–”

“Shut up.” The woman looked Hana and her mech up and down. Junkrat rubbed the back of his neck and fell silent. “What’s your business with the Junkers?”

The woman was certainly intimidating, but Hana had faced down bigger foes. “I don’t know,” she decided to say. “What can you offer me?”

The woman raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t look entirely displeased with the flippant answer. Instead she removed her gas mask, allowing a full view of her face. “Good question, but first you gotta sell yourself a little. What can _you_ offer _us_?”

“Renovations,” Junkrat piped up, gesturing to the newly “renovated” doorway.

“I told you to be quiet.”

Junkrat copied her words in a sing-songy mutter.

Hana found herself drawing a blank. What _would_ she have to offer this gang of hardened survivors? “I have, well, this.” She extended her arms to encompass the mech suit she sat in.

The woman’s expression did not change. “I don’t mean your possessions. We could easily kill you and take the power loader for our own if we wanted.”

“…I can repair it.”

“A little better, but we have a dedicated mechanic already.”

Forced to introspect on her own strengths, Hana was a bit surprised at what she managed to come up with. “Well…I’m a good strategist. I was on my way to winning a world championship tournament for Starcraft before all this happened.”

The woman smirked a little. “Is that a video game?”

“Yeah.” Not only was it just “a video game”, it was something that was apparently so firmly imprinted into her memory that she could remember details about it better than she could remember her own family anymore. But Hana saw little point in mentioning that to the woman.

“Okay. A good strategist. What else?”

“I have really good reflexes.”

The woman nodded, chewing her lip idly. “What else?”

“Well I think I’m pretty smart, and fast, and good at avoiding too much danger. I’m still alive out here, aren’t I?”

“True. And you’re awfully young to be out there by yourself.”

Hana faltered for a second before responding with “I’m not by myself.” By then it was too late. The woman clearly saw through the lie. She continued to stare Hana down for what felt like an eternity. Finally, after Hana swore she could feel the woman’s eyes boring into her skull, the mysterious woman simply said, “All right. I’m sold.”

The response surprised Hana. She struggled to act nonchalant about it as the woman then asked her what she wanted out of the Junkers. “I mean, I guess it’d be nice to not be slowly dying all alone out there.”

The woman nodded. “Don’t think anyone wants that.”

“…And I guess having other people to talk to would be nice, too.”

At that the woman chuckled. “Well your mileage is gonna vary with this bunch. Some of them”–she waved a hand in Junkrat’s direction–“will never shut up. Others…well, they either don’t talk much or only talk about weird shit you’d never actually want to hold a conversation about.”

Hana looked around at the three Junkers surrounding her. Did she really have anything to lose? Worst case these people killed her. Then at least she wouldn’t have to be hungry or sick anymore.

“I guess I’ll give you guys a chance.”

The woman stood up from the desk. “All right. Welcome aboard, then.” She offered a gloved hand to Hana. Hana hesitated. The woman lowered her arm and did not pursue a handshake after that. “They call me Boss.”

“I’m Hana.”

“Hana, huh?” Boss tapped her chin. “Just a word of advice, you’re gonna want to come up with a nickname around here. If you don’t give yourself one someone will give you one. And it won’t be flattering.”

“A nickname? Um, okay. I’ll try to think of something.”

“Good.” Boss looked to Junkrat then. “So, since she’s your recruit, I want you to show her around.”

Junkrat saluted her.

Next thing Hana knew she was taking a tour of the apparent human freakshow known as the Junkers. Everybody there was clearly a victim of unhealthy levels of radiation, many in worse shape than she was. As Junkrat led her past the cells-turned-bedrooms, rambling on about everything and nothing, Hana took in some of her new roommates. One cell held a boy younger than her dressed in nothing but tattered shorts and a baseball cap, with an unnerving stub where his left arm should have been and patches of skin with no pigment mottled in with a skin tone that was otherwise very close to Hana’s own. He glanced up from chewing his fingernails to take in the odd caravan moving past his bedroom. Hana avoided eye contact with him.

A few cells down from his, Hana paused again. A bizarrely-dressed person sat on a cot inside that cell. Every centimeter of their skin was covered, a yellow gas mask covering their face and a green hood obscuring their head and hair. They were cleaning a frighteningly long gun–some kind of sniper rifle?–with an old rag. Their body was strapped with ammunition all over.

Hana made the mistake of staring for just a moment too long. The person lifted their head and immediately locked onto her, their gaze piercing even through the red lenses of their gas mask. Hana felt a shudder run through her. She averted her eyes and hurried after Junkrat.

Staying here was going to be an experience, for sure.


	4. Wasteland Warrior

Hana spent the next several days learning the ins and outs of her new gang. Most of the Junkers were surprisingly civil to her, maybe because she was a teenage girl, although some were still kind of dicks. There were about thirty of them in all.

She’d taken Boss’ advice and chosen a nickname for herself. She settled on her old eSports username, “D.Va”. The Junkers seemed to find it funny rather than intimidating like most of theirs, but she didn’t really care. Besides, it was better than being stuck with a name like “Junkrat”.

“Hey, D.Va!” A grating voice roused her early one morning. “Deevs! Wake up!”

She rolled her eyes before even opening them. Reluctantly sitting up on her cot, she was greeted by the sight of Junkrat outside the bars of her “bedroom”. He was shifting his weight back and forth from his normal leg to his peg leg and giggling as usual.

“What?” Hana’s tone could not have been any less cordial.

“Today’s yer big day!”

“They’re finally gonna build me the soundproof walls I asked for?”

That spurred more laughter from Junkrat. “Just c’mon out! You’ll see.”

Hana leaned over the side of the bed. Rubbing her eyes, she cast a glance over into the scrap-of-chrome-turned-mirror she’d installed on the wall. Her eyes looked sunken into their sockets these days. She wasn’t entirely sure why she even bothered with a mirror, in all honesty – it wasn’t like she could be assed applying makeup or anything anymore. She used to get so elaborate with it, even painting pink stripes on her cheeks as part of her signature look when she livestreamed. Nowadays the only signature look she had was “post-apocalyptic teenage greasemonkey”.

She slept in her clothes, so her morning routine took practically no time at all. She was up and ready in a matter of a few minutes. Junkrat, who was still waiting outside her cell, visibly brightened when she opened the cell door and leveled him with an apathetic stare.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! No more waiting!” He hopped down the long hall of cells. Hana wandered after him, still yawning. It was tough to get a decent night’s sleep on a prison cot. Still beat sleeping out in the wastes, though.

Junkrat eventually led her to the dining hall. To Hana’s surprise, everyone was already up and hanging around it. For the most part they weren’t eating – they looked like they were waiting for something. A buzz of chatter arose from the group when Hana and Junkrat strolled through the doorway. Suddenly, Hana realized, all eyes were on her.

“So.” The crowd parted to let Boss through. She was smiling, a rare occurrence from Hana’s experiences with her. “You’ve been with us for a full week now.”

Had it been a week already? The days really flew by when you spent most of them either sleeping or trying to find a place to pee where no one was watching you.

Hana’s lack of response did not seem to deter Boss from continuing her monologue. “We’ve been taking it easy on you, but as of today you’re going to start pulling your weight around here. First step to that is…” She fanned one arm out, encompassing the ragtag group around her. “Choosing a partner for scavenging runs.”

“Scavenging runs?”

“We go in pairs. Comb the Outback for anything and everything that could be useful to us. We can make something useful out of even the junkiest of junk. Where do you think we got our name from?”

Hana had a sudden, hazy memory of her school days. She was always scrambling to find a partner for group work when the teacher called for it. The downside of not having very many real-life friends.

She immediately looked to Junkrat, who shook his head. “Sorry Deevs.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Roadhog had appeared behind him without Hana even noticing. “I’m a taken man.”

That same sinking feeling from her school era began to gnaw at her stomach. She glanced about the crowd of unfamiliar Junkers. Sure she’d spoken to most of them a time or two, but she didn’t really _know_ them – and how was she supposed to know who already had a partner? What if they didn’t want to be paired up with D.Va the Newbie?

“…Who’s available?” she asked Boss, trying to pretend the suddenly-quite-intimidating group of Junkers around the other woman didn’t exist.

Boss laughed. “Why don’t you ask them? Hey, who needs a partner for scavenges?”

The Junkers all murmured amongst themselves. Shrugs and headshakes all around seemed to give off the impression that nobody needed a partner. Hana sighed. “I can just go by myself. I mean, I have my mech. That kind of counts as a partner, right?”

“Uh-uh, no way. What kind of boss would I be if I sent you out there all alone, with no one to return your valuables to us if you get yourself killed? I’m not letting that mech rot somewhere because you got eaten by a mutant dingo.”

And here Hana had thought Boss was actually looking out for her. Rookie mistake, she guessed.

“Okay, well, I guess you’re gonna go in a group of three then. How about you – hey, wait a minute.” Boss fixated on a Junker near the back of the room. Hana stood on her tiptoes to try to see who she was addressing, with little success. “I _know_ you don’t have a partner. I always see you sneaking out by yourself.”

“ _Who’s she talking to?_ ” Hana whispered to Junkrat.

With his extra height he was presumably able to see them clearly. He leaned down to her and said, in a poor excuse for a whisper, “ _I don’t know their name. They never talk to anyone here._ ”

“ _Maybe describe them??_ ” Her whisper grew sharper, laced with slight annoyance.

Before Junkrat could answer her, Boss spoke up again. “Okay D.Va, this’ll be your new scavenging partner. Maybe you’ll actually get them to talk to you, ‘cause they sure as hell don’t want to talk to me or anyone else here, seems like.”

The other Junkers moved aside as one stepped out from the crowd. Hana’s eyes widened at the sight of the Junker she’d seen in a cell her very first day there. The one with the gas mask and the sniper rifle.

Boss waved a hand at the strange Junker, who kept their covered eyes fixed on Hana. “So here’s your new partner. This…person.” With a shrug, she added, “I don’t know their name or jack shit about them. We call ‘em The Wastelander because they look like they came out of one of those post-apocalypse movies.”

The Wastelander moved to stand before Hana. Hana realized in that moment that they were about the same height. It felt a bit odd to her. From a distance the strange Junker had seemed so much larger than life, so intimidating.

“Um, hi.” Hana gave her new partner a small wave. The Wastelander gave her a small nod, but said nothing.

“All right, so now that you’re paired up it’s time for you to go. Don’t come back ‘til you find something good.” Boss led Hana over to a large metal door with no window. She pushed it open, revealing the harsh Outback sun to the dim room.

“Wait, what about my mech? It’s still in its cell!”

Boss hesitated. “Ugh, fine. Go get it and then come right back here.”

As Hana started off for the cells, she heard light footsteps behind her. Suddenly The Wastelander was at her side. “Oh, you can wait here if you want,” Hana said. The other Junker ignored her words, and continued to follow her. “…Or not. Okay.”

Every member of the Junkers was somewhat creepy in their own way, but none of them unnerved her quite like this one. What were they hiding? The entire time they followed Hana they kept a firm grip on their rifle, as if expecting Hana to suddenly lunge at them like a rabid animal that needed to be shot down. Hana did her best to try and ignore it, with mixed results.

If this was how their scavenging runs were going to go then they were surely going to be a _ton_ of fun.

 

* * *

 

“So,” Hana said as they trudged through the sweltering wasteland in search of junk, “I’m Hana. I – I mean D.Va. I know we’re supposed to be all about nicknames here and stuff.”

The Wastelander walked in the shadow of Hana’s mech. They cradled their rifle like a newborn child. Hana noticed the gun had an array of notches carved into its barrel, almost like tally marks. There were many of them.

“Boss said they call you The Wastelander,” Hana eventually said. “Is that, like, okay? Or do you want me to call you something else?”

Predictably, her questions received no response.

“Oh come on,” Hana whined. “We’re partners on these stupid outings now. Can’t you at least talk to me?”

Again, no response. The Wastelander stared ahead of them, never looking in Hana’s direction. That spurred a bit of Hana’s old personality to the surface. She did _not_ like being ignored.

“Okay, fine then. If you don’t want to talk then I’ll just do all the talking.” Hana took a deep breath (well, half a breath, a few coughs, then the rest of the breath), and then launched into a spiel.

“It’s really hot out today…hotter than usual, even. I wish I could take a shower. The mech has sweat stains on the joysticks from my hands. That’s kinda gross. I wish I could take it to a car wash. Well I guess it would be a mech wash. Do you think they’d wash a mech at a car wash? I mean it’s kinda technically a vehicle, right? It’s carrying a passenger. If the world ever goes back to normal maybe I’ll try taking it to a car wash and see what happens. I mean, if I live that long I guess. Kind of feel like my lungs might give out before then. Can’t do much without lungs. Unless I had some kind of freakish DNA surgery and had, like, gills installed on me or something. Then I could live underwater. Then I wouldn’t even _need_ to shower, because I’d be living in water all the – hey, are you even listening to me??”

The Wastelander still was not paying Hana any mind. In fact they seemed completely unfazed by her outburst, almost as if they didn’t even notice she was there.

Hana grumbled under her breath. “Ugh, I can’t believe I actually miss Junkrat right now. At least he says words and doesn’t just leave me talking to myself.” She fell silent for a moment, but then couldn’t resist adding, “I thought I was gonna go crazy before I joined the Junkers. Nothing but silence all day every day. I’m not used to that. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m a teenage girl, and teenage girls usually like to talk once in a while.”

She’d planned her words to be spoken sarcastically, like a joke, but when they fell from her lips they held an unintentional note of sadness.

“I miss the way things used to be,” she practically whispered. “When I was normal, and had normal friends…and my parents…”

The Wastelander’s step faltered. Hana turned to find them looking at her for the very first time since they’d departed for their run.

Hana hadn’t expected to actually garner their attention. “…Forget it, I’ll be quiet. I know I’m just being annoying.”

They continued on in silence after that. Quite some time passed before they came upon what had apparently used to be some kind of corner store. Its roof was blown off, the windows were all smashed out, and everything inside was tipped over and spilled everywhere.

Hana stepped the mech through one of the window frames. She then swiveled the mech’s joysticks to lift its “arms”, revealing the makeshift “cannons” she’d affixed to them. Their damage output was pretty puny, but they were pretty fast at shooting. Unfortunately they left a lingering smell like burning metal afterward and heated the mech up to scorching levels, but hey, it was her own handiwork and Hana was damn proud of it.

There didn’t seem to be anything worth shooting inside the storefront, thankfully. Hana was several steps in before she realized The Wastelander was no longer at her side. She turned the clunky mech to find her companion stepping cautiously through the broken glass of the windows. “Oh, I can help–” Hana held out a metal arm to the other Junker, but The Wastelander refused it. They pulled their other leg inside the storefront, stumbled slightly, but caught themselves before Hana could intervene. The more Hana watched their movements, the more she began to realize something. This Junker did not move like she did. They moved like an older person. Their back was bent slightly, and their movements were very cautious and deliberate. They certainly weren’t feeble, but there was age to their step.

Hana used the mech’s old power loader abilities to lift a toppled store shelf. Beneath it she found a few boxes of cookies, all chewed open by rats. Regardless she snatched a pack up, plucked out a few that didn’t have nibbles gone out of them, and stuffed them into her mouth. She was probably supposed to bring back everything she found, but screw it. She hadn’t had cookies in ages.

There were probably things in the store the Junkers could use, but Hana was unsure exactly what was useful to them and what was not. She did manage to find a few undisturbed tubes of toothpaste – God knew the Junkers needed it – but upon opening them the toothpaste ran out like neon green water. She also found some deodorant, but it, too, had liquefied from massive amounts of radiation.

“I think this place is kind of a bust,” she said after a while. Of course The Wastelander did not respond, giving Hana no clue where in the store the other Junker even was. She wandered across the storefront, checking the aisles for her silent companion.

To her surprise, she found them in the tiny Grocery section, stuffing a box of…tea bags…into a pouch at their waist. Before Hana could comment on the strange choice of item they walked away, pretending to take interest in something at the front of the store. Of course, being the nosy little shit that she was, Hana couldn’t ignore the situation for too long. “Really?” she said as her mech stomped up beside The Wastelander at the front of the store. “You’re a tea person?” It struck her as weird and, for some reason, kind of funny.

Other than a few uninteresting odds and ends the store was picked totally clean. They moved on. Despite her earlier resolution to be quiet, Hana couldn’t help trying to pry for just a little more information about the mysterious gun-toting Junker accompanying her. “So you really won’t tell me anything about yourself? Not even your name? You _can_ talk, right? You just choose not to?”

They came upon a sinkhole where the pavement of the road had cracked and blistered. The piping system must have burst, for some residual water pooled in the sunken areas. Her questions forgotten, Hana slipped out the back of her mech and hurried over to it. She was dying of thirst out in this heat.

The Wastelander watched as Hana cupped her hands and sniffed the water. It looked and smelled okay. Some bubbles beneath the water’s surface indicated the pipe was still actively leaking, so the water must have still been relatively fresh. She took a sip. With a smack of her dry lips, she said, “I think it’s good.”

The Wastelander knelt down beside her. Instead of taking a drink from the sinkhole, they unclipped an old-school canteen from their belt and filled it up. Once it was filled they closed it and put it away without even taking a swig. “Aren’t you thirsty?” Hana asked. “My friend Junkrat says when he found me I was so dried out I looked like one of those vacuum-sealed meat packages–”

“These people are not your friends.”

Hana startled at the response. Her head whipped up from the puddle towards her companion. The Wastelander had lifted their mask just enough for their words to be clear to her. The voice that spoke them was undeniably female, and sounded, as Hana had predicted earlier, somewhat old and weathered.

“So you can talk,” was all Hana could think to respond.

“I prefer not to.” The Wastelander had an accent that was definitely not Australian. “It isn’t wise to disclose unnecessary information. Especially not to cutthroats like the Junkers.”

“I’m a Junker,” Hana said. “You’re talking to me.”

“I have my reasons for that.” The Wastelander turned away, prompting Hana to close the distance between them. “You are not like them. You never will be. You are far too trusting and give far too many chances. The moment your arrangement with them is no longer deemed fruitful enough, or maybe even before then, they will kill you and take everything you have.”

Hana hesitated, unsure how to respond to the harsh words. Eventually she said, “If you supposedly don’t trust them then why are you with them? Aren’t you scared they’ll kill you?”

She swore she heard a husky laugh from under the Wastelander’s mask. “They couldn’t kill me if they tried. But you are only a child. Anyone who looks upon you can see the naiveté in your eyes. And they will use that to their advantage eventually.”

Hana circled around the woman, trying to get a look under her mask. The Wastelander would grant her no such wish. “So, what, I’m supposed to just trust you on this, but not trust anybody else? That sounds pretty suspicious to me.”

“Good. You should be suspicious.”

That was all The Wastelander would say. After that she lowered her mask and began to walk away. Hana reluctantly followed her, practically overflowing with questions she knew would not be answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been doing a bit of reading into the Junkers and I'm aware this isn't probably how most people envision them, but I want to make a point of noting that a) this is very early into the destruction of the Outback (like, less than a month), so there are a lot of people who are just sort of lost and looking for a place to stay and also b) I thought it would be more interesting to have Hana join a more formal group that is trying to build their own mini society (as they're described in canon source materials) as opposed to just a loose association of criminals wandering the Outback. 
> 
> Also shoutout to the ask I got on tumblr suggesting I include Wasteland!Ana, I'm having a ton of fun writing her in this environment and forming a sort of reluctant bond with Hana.
> 
> Thanks for reading! As always, comments are super appreciated...it's really nice to know people are enjoying my work, and I've been pouring a ton of time and effort into this one. Next chapter will be up soon!


	5. Things Could Be Worse

“What do you mean you didn’t find anything?” Boss’ entire demeanor changed when Hana and The Wastelander returned. “Um, okay, maybe you don’t understand how this works. I told you not to come back unless you found something. You don’t come back empty-handed. Your run ends when you find something useful to us.”

The Wastelander, of course, said nothing, leaving Hana to do all the explaining. All eyes were on her, with several Junkers crowding around in curiosity at the sound of Boss’ angry voice.

“We were tired and hungry. We were out in that heat for hours. There was nothing out there.”

Boss frowned. “Oh, you were tired and hungry? Well that changes everything.”

“…Really?”

Suddenly one of Boss’ gloved hands lashed out at her. She struck Hana in the face, knocking her backward. The Junkers around them hooted and howled as if they were school kids watching a fight.

To Hana’s surprise The Wastelander immediately leapt in front of Hana, preventing Boss from landing any further blows. Boss scoffed. “You two have some bonding moments out there? Touching. Guess you had to be doing _something_ while you were busy not finding shit for us.”

Hana was still reeling at Boss’ sudden change in personality. Or was it sudden? She had never really been nice to Hana, just decent whenever Hana went along with her leadership decisions. Maybe The Wastelander had been right in warning her about the Junkers.

When Hana didn’t respond to her jab, Boss sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, it was your first time. You’re young. Maybe you’re a little stupid. I don’t know.” She turned back around and leveled The Wastelander with a glare. “What’s your excuse?”

The Wastelander stood tall even under Boss’ scathing glare. The clear lack of intimidation on the older woman’s part evidently irritated Boss. With a huff she reached for The Wastelander’s gas mask, presumably to pull it off. The Wastelander’s hand shot up and caught Boss’ arm in a tight grip before she could even get close. Boss’ eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly masked her surprise, instead yanking her arm back and scowling.

“Do better next time,” was all she said before walking away.

Hana touched her cheek where Boss had struck her. No one had ever hit her before. The roughness of Boss’ glove must have sliced her dried-out skin, for it stung like an open cut.

The Wastelander beckoned for Hana to come with her. Not sure what else to do, Hana ducked through the crowd and followed her all the way to her cell.

Once inside, The Wastelander sat Hana down on her cot and pulled a makeshift curtain made of various fabric scraps across the bars of the cell, obscuring them from the rest of the Junkers. She retrieved a small jar of something from one of the pouches at her side. Taking a seat beside Hana, she slipped one of her own gloves off, revealing a weathered brown hand underneath. Hana held perfectly still as the woman dipped her fingers into the jar, covering two fingertips in a balmy white salve, and then gingerly dabbed at Hana’s wound with them. Hana winced at the brief stinging sensation that followed, but she did not dare pull away or complain. The woman rubbed the solution into the cut until the stinging subsided.

“Um, thank you?” she said as The Wastelander slid her glove back on and quickly pocketed the salve. “I don’t understand why you’re helping me, or if you’re even helping me, but…”

“You should not stay here.” The Wastelander turned away from her. Her hand lowered from her face, holding her mask. Hana was curious to see what she looked like beneath it, but she did not attempt to.

“There’s nowhere else to go. Everything else is just…wasteland.”

The woman moved to glance out the tiny window of the cell. Of course, being dark out, there wasn’t much to see. Not that there was much to see out there in the daylight, either. “I cohabited with the Junkers in an attempt to blend in. To hide myself.” She turned slowly toward Hana. In the dim light Hana could just make out the woman’s face – she was correct in her assumption that the woman was old, but she wore her age gracefully, like a badge of honor for surviving so many long years. A tuft of pure white hair poked out from under her hood and covered one eye, which Hana noticed was shielded by an eye patch. Her one uncovered eye had a twinkle to it, almost a mischievous sort of gleam. Beneath that eye she had some sort of tattoo. “You don’t have to hide yourself like I do.”

“What are you hiding from?” Hana lowered her voice, mindful of potential listeners beyond the curtain.

The woman smiled sadly. “The entire world.”

Hana went quiet as the woman sat down at the far end of her cot. After a long silence the woman finally spoke again. “My name is Ana, by the way.”

“Oh. I’m, uh, Hana.” Hana laughed a little. “Close.”

Ana nodded. “If I may, how old are you, Hana?”

“Nineteen.”

“Ah. You truly are a child. I’m sorry you were forced into this kind of world so young.”

“Oh, it’s not…that bad…” Hana shrugged. “I mean, who needs to finish uni or anything, right? No student loans!” She forced a small laugh.

Ana stood back up, facing away from Hana once again. “I won’t be staying here much longer,” she said. “I would advise you to consider other options as well.”

“Like what, though? I don’t think any other countries want to set foot in Australia to look for survivors. Where else can I go?”

“D.Va?” Both Hana and Ana froze at the voice echoing down the hall. “Deevs? Where are ya?”

The two women exchanged a brief look. Ana quickly reaffixed her mask, then gestured for Hana to go. “Thank you,” Hana whispered as she pushed the curtain aside and snuck out the cell door. Ana simply nodded at her.

The second Hana emerged from Ana’s cell, Junkrat began hopping over to her. “Oi, I thought you didn’t make it back! Why didn’t ya come find me earlier??”

“Sorry, I…” She trailed off, unsure of what to say.

The moment Junkrat reached her he immediately locked on to her gradually-blackening eye. “What happened to yer eye, mate? Somebody pop you one?”

Hana looked around. At this time of night the base was fairly quiet. Hopefully no one was spying on them. “Can I talk to you somewhere private? Like, outside maybe?”

Junkrat looked confused. “Uh, okay. Sure.”

Five minutes later they were just outside the prison’s front entrance. Hana beckoned for Junkrat to lean in close, so she could whisper to him.

“Do you feel safe here?” was the first thing she decided to ask him. He drew back, scrunched up his face for a moment – then burst out laughing.

“Safe with the Junkers?? Mate, someone here’ll kill ya for lookin’ at ‘em wrong. You couldn’t find a bigger band’a bastards around. So to answer your question, nah, nobody’s safe here.”

“So why do you stay?”

Junkrat shrugged. “They like havin’ me around as the explosives expert. Any chance to make things a little more explodey is a good deal to me.” He started to cackle before Hana quickly shushed him. He fell silent and waited for her to formulate her next thought.

“…Boss punched me in the face earlier.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ where you got that shiner. You come back empty-handed or something?”

“I didn’t know you _had_ to bring something back. Neither did An – neither did The Wastelander. Boss never explained that to us.”

“Well now ya know. So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is I don’t know if I want to stay in a group led by a lady who would punch a nineteen-year-old girl in the face?”

Junkrat stared at her for a long moment. Then he said, “You’re nineteen? I had you pegged for sixteen tops.”

She growled at him. He threw his hands up in mock surrender.

“Has Boss ever hurt anyone beyond just hitting them?” Hana asked. “I mean, like…”

Junkrat scratched his chin. “Um, I don’t think so. My memory’s pretty shit, though.”

“What if she does it again?”

“Punch her back? I dunno.”

“I’m not gonna get into a smackdown with the leader of the group that’s giving me a place to eat and sleep.”

“Aw, but that’d be hilarious!”

Hana punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow! Don’t practice on me!”

“I guess I’ll stay for now,” Hana eventually said. “But if things go bad here, are you gonna stay?”

Junkrat hesitated. “I don’t know. Guess I’d have to see what Roadie wanted to do.”

Hana stared at him for a long moment. He stared back at her, growing visibly flushed at the awkward silence. Eventually she reached out and pushed him in the chest.

“All right, conversation over. Go be a weirdo somewhere else.”

“Jeez, ya meanie.” He hobbled over to the front door that they’d left propped open with a hunk of wood. He opened it wide as if holding it for Hana, but as soon as she approached he let it go in her face. She quickly yanked it open and chased him down the main corridor, Junkrat laughing madly the whole way.

 

* * *

 

“Hey.”

Hana pulled her tired eyelids apart and lifted her head off the cot. In the darkness she managed to make out the silhouette of Boss standing outside the door of her cell. Hana remained silent, and lowered her head once again.

Boss was silent for a few moments as well. Then she said, “I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have hit you, you’re just a kid. It’s like…” She sighed, massaging her temples in apparent frustration. “I have to keep their respect around here. These guys, they don’t want a leader. But they need one. And sometimes it takes stuff like that to get them to listen to me.”

Hana curled up smaller on the cot. One hand drifted subconsciously to her bruised cheek.

“You know, I’m only twenty-two,” Boss continued, filling the thick silence that grew between them. “I know I don’t look it. People used to always say I looked ‘mature’ for my age. But I’m twenty-two. Was in my last semester of uni when all this shit went and blew up in everyone’s faces.” She paused, as if not sure where to go from there. When Hana still would not meet her stare, Boss said, “C’mon, woman to woman, or girl to girl, or whatever, hasn’t there ever been a time in your life where you felt like guys didn’t take you seriously?”

“I was a professional video gamer,” Hana mumbled. “ _Nobody_ took me seriously.”

“A professional gamer? Really?” Boss’ tone changed, growing a little more lighthearted for a moment. Then she quickly reeled it back in. “Okay, video games are a notoriously male-dominated area. So you _must_ know what I’m talking about. How hard it can be to be seen as an equal sometimes.”

Hana shrugged, still facing away from her. “I guess.”

The old metal of the cell door creaked as Boss must have leaned against it. “I feel like the Junkers can be something really good. Rebuild society from the ground-up, where everyone gets an equal chance as long as they’ve got the skills to make it out here. You’re missing an arm or a leg? Your face was blown off in the omnium explosion? You can’t form a coherent sentence because you’ve got radiation-induced brain damage? Doesn’t matter, you can still be a valuable asset here if you’ve got knowledge or strength or stupid amounts of bravery.” She dragged a hand down the bars, making a series of tiny metallic sounds. “I don’t know. I guess I just like to think I’m doing something that’s gonna matter in the future.”

They fell silent for what must have been a full minute. Then, slowly, Hana rose from her cot. She approached Boss at the cell door. Boss seemed uncertain, but when Hana opened the door Boss did not shy away from her.

That made it all the easier for Hana to wind up and deliver a splitting face punch of her own.

Boss clutched her face as she staggered into the wall behind them and steadied herself against it. “Holy shit,” she hissed between her fingers. “For a professional nerd, damn, you’ve got some strength behind those tiny fists.”

Hana folded her arms triumphantly.

When Boss removed her hands from her face, Hana realized she was smiling just the tiniest bit. “So, are we even now?” she asked.

“Hmm. I guess so.”

“Good.” Boss started to walk past her, but then paused. “Um, thanks for hearing me out. I won’t hit you again. Might have to yell at you, though. To keep up appearances.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to complain to everyone about how much of a hard-ass you are.”

Boss’ smile grew. With one of her gloved hands she reached up and playfully ruffled Hana’s short, choppy hair. Hana knocked her hand away, but that gesture, unlike her last one, was not malicious in nature. Boss actually laughed a little.

“I’ll let ya get back to sleep now. See you in the morning.”

Hana rubbed her eye as she nodded at the other girl. “Night.”

Of course, she didn’t get to sleep for some time after that. Her head was filled with conflicting thoughts, concerns of who to trust and how much of herself she could truly expose here. She got a good gut feeling from that old woman, Ana. Maybe tomorrow she could get her to talk a little more.


	6. Off the Grid

Breakfast with the Junkers was always quite the experience. It usually consisted of at least a dozen fights over food, several of which would devolve into physical altercations that the bodyguards like Roadhog would have to break up. The food wasn’t even that enticing – they were apparently still stretching out the canned goods they’d looted from a food bank that was blown to smithereens in the omnium explosion. None of the food went together flavor-wise, and it all had a funny aftertaste, but when you were starving any crumb of food apparently became worth stabbing someone over. 

Hana was just sitting down with Junkrat and Roadhog when she noticed Ana slip through the crowd with a cup in her gloved hand. “Hey!” Hana instinctively called out to her. Ana paused and glanced over in her direction. Hana beckoned her over. 

“Oi, we’re gonna invite that weirdo to breakfast with us?” Junkrat whispered as Ana approached. 

“They’re not that weird.” 

Ana stopped beside their dingy caf table. She did not sit down until Hana tapped the stool seat beside hers. The old woman cast a glance over Junkrat and Roadhog before reluctantly taking a seat beside Hana. Immediately Hana noticed Ana’s cup had a tea bag in it. Ana meticulously dipped it in and drew it back out of the steaming cup a few times. After a minute or so she removed it completely and set it on a napkin on the table’s surface. Junkrat and Roadhog watched her as she lifted her mask just the tiniest bit, still obscuring the majority of her face, and took a delicate sip of the hot tea. 

“So, uh, you and D.Va are pals now or somethin’?” Junkrat took a bite of his oddly-discolored canned peaches. Hana glanced from him to Roadhog, who had removed his mask to chow down on some smoked rat meat. The first time she’d seen Roadhog without his mask she’d been quite surprised – he was older than she’d expected, with scars all over his face and a bushy gray beard matted down from being covered so often. She wondered what his story was, if he had as much to hide as Ana apparently did. 

Ana, of course, did not answer Junkrat. She instead took another sip of her tea and glanced over at Hana. 

“We made a good team yesterday.” Hana purposely kept her response vague. Ana nodded, perhaps in approval of that. 

“Ah I see. When Roadie and I first met up we didn’t exactly hit it off right away.” Junkrat elbowed him in the stomach. Roadhog shook his head. “I, uh, had some stuff goin’ on…I’m a pretty popular guy, turns out.” He snickered to himself. “Anyways, we’re thick as thieves now. Literally. Heheh.” 

Roadhog gave a silent thumbs up. 

“There’s nothin’ quite like havin’ a pal in this hellhole.” Junkrat took another bite of his meal, but it did not stop him from talking. Hana grimaced and looked away as he continued talking with his mouth full. “Oi, that reminds me Deevs. Me and Roadie had a bit of a proposition for ya.” He glanced over at Ana, then leaned across the table, jerked a thumb at her, and conspicuously whispered to Hana, “ _Are they cool? Can we trust ‘_ _em_ _?_ ” 

Hana looked over at her newest companion. She wished she knew if she could trust _anyone_ these days. 

“Yeah,” she eventually said. “They’re cool.” 

“All right. I’m takin’ your word on this, Deevs.” He leaned in closer to them. With widened eyes and a wicked grin he whispered, “Roadie and I found a way outta here.” 

Hana tilted her head. “Out of where? The Junkers?” 

“Out of Australia.” 

Hana raised her eyebrows. “Seriously?” 

“Yeah. On our last scavenging run Roadie and I came across a couple of guys. Government guys, or at least they used to be. Apparently they’re shippin’ survivors out by boat to south Indonesia. ‘Course, they want something in exchange for it…” 

Hana didn’t even have to turn to feel Ana’s stare boring into her from behind that mask. “What do they want?” She was careful not to let too much emotion creep into her voice, positive or negative. 

“They said they go on a case-by-case basis. So I guess we’d bring ‘em something and they’d decide if it was enough.” 

“That doesn’t sound very safe. What if they get us to bring them stuff and then they just kill us?” 

Junkrat and Roadhog exchanged a look. Junkrat snickered. “I don’t think they’re gonna be in much of a position to refuse.” 

“Why won’t they–” Hana trailed off as the realization struck her. “You’re going to kill them.” 

“Those saps have it comin’! They’re charging people an arm and a leg just to get to safety – and I only got one of each!” He held out his prosthetic hand and stuck his peg leg out from under the table, then cackled at his own joke. “But seriously though, yeah, we’re gonna kill them.” 

The old Hana would recoil at the thought of taking a human life, or even associating with someone who could. In the several weeks she’d been living in the wasteland of the Outback, however, she found that something within her had changed. Her actions were no longer governed by laws, or even by a strict moral code. Refusing to give refuge to survivors of a radioactive meltdown unless they paid their way _was_ pretty shitty. Maybe people like that _were_ better off dead. 

Hana glanced to Ana. “What do you think?” 

Ana set her cup down on the table, its tiny porcelain _clink_ her only response. 

If she could get back to the normal world she could get medical treatment. She could take a shower. Hell, she could get back in touch with her array of internet friends and let them know she was still alive. Maybe one of them would even take her in and let her stay with them for a while. 

“Are all of the Junkers gonna go?” she asked next. 

“No, no, hell no.” Junkrat shook his head vehemently. “There’s a lot of stuff you don’t know about this place. Heck, there’s a lotta stuff _I_ don’t know, because I forget half of it. But I’ll tell ya one thing – Boss _likes_ things the way they are right now. She’s always talkin’ about _rebuilding_ – rebuilding the world, or society, or whatever. She loves the Junkers. I don’t think she’d be crazy about the idea of even just some of us up and leaving on her.” 

“Oh.” Boss _had_ been talking like that last night to Hana. “So we’d be sneaking out?” 

“That’s the plan.” 

Hana’s gaze drifted over to the far table where Boss was entertaining some of her inner circle with loud storytelling and vivacious hand gestures. She didn’t seem like a bad person. Hana felt a little bad at the thought of sneaking out on her, but she quickly reminded herself that it was _her_ life, not Boss’. They weren’t Boss’ personal pets. 

“Give me a little time to think about it,” she ultimately responded. 

Junkrat shrugged. “Well all right. We’d be happy to have ya along, though.” 

She smiled just a tiny bit. “Thanks. I’d like to stay with you guys if I can.” 

They finished breakfast the usual way, with Junkrat rambling about some nonsense while the rest of them half-listened. Ana seemed disinterested in any of them, instead staring off into the distance most of the time. Hana wondered how she felt about the possibility of leaving Australia. Did she have family anywhere? Hana herself had grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all still living in South Korea. She would like to visit them, but their names and faces were a blur in her microwaved brain. She’d most likely end up wandering lost through the streets of her home country until somebody reported a dirty, suspicious-looking teenager sleeping on sidewalks and yelling at random passersby to ask if they knew a Hana Song. 

There was so much to consider. Hana missed the days when her biggest worry was a broken button on her keyboard, or a nasty wrist cramp. Everything was so much simpler then. 

* * *

 

After breakfast Hana spent some time tuning up her mech in its storage cell beside hers. Roadhog had surprised her the other day with a license plate from the press inside the prison. It read “WR3KD”, which made Hana laugh a little. She welded it to the back of the mech with her subpar, self-taught welding skills. Considering part of the junk mech’s exoskeleton was literally just a truck bumper with a winch still dangling from it, the license plate fit right in. 

“Hey, kiddo.” 

Hana was cleaning out the makeshift guns on the mech’s arms when a soft voice caught her attention. She lifted her gaze from the charred metal to find Boss lingering outside the cell. “Oh, hi.” 

Boss held out a large cardboard box. “Are you busy? If not, can I show you something?” 

Hana glanced back at her mech for a moment. “Well I was cleaning out the guns on my suit…” 

“Oh.” Boss took an awkward step back. “Well if you’re busy I’ll leave you to it. Maybe come back later–” 

“What did you want to show me?” 

That was all the encouragement Boss needed to pull open the cell door and stride in with the box. She dropped it onto the unused cot. “I’ve been working on something.” 

Hana stood up. “Oh?” 

With a tiny smile, Boss pulled back the flaps of the box. From within it she retrieved a pair of…some odd yellow things that looked sort of like speakers, but clearly weren’t. 

Hana didn’t even bother asking, because Boss’ expression told her the other girl was about to launch whether asked about them or not. 

“You know, I was studying engineering in college.” She picked the mystery items up and held them up to the mech. She must have used the same can of paint Hana had used for the mech body, for they were the exact same shade of yellow. “If I made these correctly, and I’m pretty sure I did, they should be able to power your mech forward, possibly even off the ground. They’re basically boosters.”  

“Boosters?” Hana watched as Boss strapped them around the “shoulders” of the mech. She then fed two wires through a space in the mech’s junky exoskeleton, into the cockpit. “I should be able to rig them to a button…”  

The thought of someone else tampering with her mech raised Hana’s hackles a bit, but she reluctantly allowed Boss to rewire it a bit. After a minute or two Boss hopped down from the cockpit, a triumphant smile brightening her face. “I think I did it. You wanna test it out?” 

“Here?” 

“Nah. Let’s try it outside.” 

Hana kept an eye on Boss as she climbed into her mech and roused it to life.  

* * *

 

“All right, so ideally you should just be able to press the buttons on the top of the control sticks and it’ll kick the boosters into action.” Boss stood a safe distance from the newly-modded mech. “Then just push the sticks in the direction you want to go.” 

“All right.” Hana took a deep breath. “Here we go. Boosters engaged–” 

As soon as she pushed the buttons the mech went rocketing forward. In a panic Hana pulled back on the sticks – but instead of stopping, the mech instead launched itself into the air. “Aaaaaaghhh!!” 

“D.Va!” Boss ran after her. “Hitting the button to fire your cannons should interrupt the signal to the boosters!” 

Hana immediately pulled the makeshift trigger she’d installed on the right joystick. Thankfully the mech stopped accelerating. It dropped to the ground with a _clank_ , leaving her momentarily dazed. 

Not a moment later Boss appeared at her side. “It worked! They worked!” 

“Ungh…” Hana clutched her stomach. “I feel a little sick.” 

Boss averted her eyes as Hana scrambled from the mech just in time to empty her breakfast rations out onto the pavement. 

“…You okay?” Boss sheepishly offered her a hand. Hana remained on her hands and knees for another few moments, making sure her stomach was truly empty. Then she allowed Boss to help her up. 

“I’ll live. Wow, that was really, um, something.” She glanced at the boosters, which were still glowing a greenish color. “They smell really strong. And bad.” 

“Oh, yeah, they’re uh…” Boss massaged the back of her neck. “I mean, they might have some radioactive…residue. I made them out of hovercar parts I looted near the omnium a couple weeks ago.” 

“Oh. Great.” 

Boss climbed up onto one of the arms of the mech and sat atop the metal limb. “So, wanna try them again?” 

“With you sitting on the mech?” 

“Yeah. I’ll hold on.” 

With a shrug, Hana engaged the boosters again. This time she made sure to travel in one straight path so as not to make herself too nauseous. Boss clung to the arm of the mech. Out the corner of her eye Hana could see her grinning, her long, dreadlocked hair flowing behind her as they blasted across the sunny former parking lot. 

When they finally slowed to a halt across the lot Boss hopped down off the mech. “That was awesome! Man, I need to find myself a power loader out there. Who knew they could be this cool?” 

Hana wordlessly nodded, feeling a pang of guilt at the knowledge of what was to come should she agree to leave with Junkrat and Roadhog. Boss had no idea, and probably thought Hana was going to develop into a friend and confidante to her. Or hell, maybe she _did_ know and was trying to guilt her into staying. Who could tell with these Junkers? 

As if reading her mind, Boss then said, “Sorry if I’m acting like a big dweeb, by the way. It’s just, I guess I didn’t really realize how much I missed having girlfriends. Not that I had very many to begin with...” She shrugged and chuckled a little. 

Hana was tempted to respond by sympathizing, by revealing that she herself had never had many friends either, but Ana’s words lingered in her mind. _These people are not your friends._ She didn’t much trust Ana either, having been given no real reason to do so, but oversharing personal information to anyone out in this wasteland couldn’t be a good idea anyway. 

She opted to remain silent. 

After several long seconds Boss must have realized Hana was not going to respond. She coughed awkwardly. “Um, so anyway, we should probably go back.” 

Hana offered her the arm of her mech again. Boss clambered back up onto it and thanked her. Opting not to use the boosters again, Hana trudged across the long, boiling hot parking lot with Boss in tow.  

* * *

 

“You said I shouldn’t trust anyone here.”  

Hana swung her legs over the edge of Ana’s cot. Ana was preparing some sort of solution in what looked like a small, very sharp blue hypodermic needle.  

“I did say that. And I still stand by it.” 

“So am I supposed to, like, assume everyone’s out to get me?” 

“One can’t be too careful.” Ana screwed a cap onto the dull end of the needle, sealing the mystery liquid inside. She added it to her belt full of other various needles and yellow tubes of…something or other. “Are you planning to leave with Junkrat?” 

“Um…” Hana stared down at the floor. “I was thinking about it.” 

“They’re planning on taking the lives of the men offering them a way out.” She picked up her rifle and began idly polishing it with the same rag she had used last time. “Are you willing to take a life? Possibly several?” 

“I can do it if I have to.”  

Ana held her rifle out to Hana. Hana looked it over, not sure exactly what she was supposed to be seeing. Then Ana ran a gloved thumb over the tally marks engraved along the side of the gun’s barrel. Hana glanced up into Ana’s single, enigmatic eye, awaiting an explanation. 

“Every mark here is a life I’ve taken,” Ana said quietly. “Each one weighs heavily upon me. It is not something to be taken lightly, or viewed as anything but an absolute last resort.” 

Hana’s eyes drifted across the long line of tally marks. “You killed all these people?” 

Ana nodded. 

“Why?” 

“I had a responsibility to my people. To my country.” She drew the rifle back into her arms. “But that does not make it any more right or just.” 

“Were you a soldier?” Hana studied the woman curiously. 

Ana hesitated, but then nodded. 

“With the Australian military?” 

“I can’t tell you more than that. I’m sorry.” 

“Okay. That’s okay.” Hana hopped off the bed and stood at Ana’s side while the older woman stared down at her rifle. After a few moments of silence Hana said, “Can you teach me how to use a gun?” 

Ana stiffened. Her uncovered eye momentarily flared with some undisclosed emotion, but it faded before she replied. “…I suppose I could give you some pointers. But you must remember what I said. Taking a life is something you will never forget. It will remain with you for the rest of your life.” 

“I’d only use it for self-defense.” 

Ana raised an eyebrow. Hana squirmed under her stare. 

“You want me to teach you how to use a gun while you’re considering a plan that hinges on murdering several people.” Ana folded her arms. “I may be old, child, but I’m not senile.” 

Hana sighed. “All right, fine. You got me. Will you still teach me, though?” 

Ana massaged her temples. “I suppose.” 

“Cool! Thanks.” Hana reached for Ana’s rifle. Ana yanked it away from her, warding Hana off with her other hand. 

“Not here. And not with this gun. Meet me outside in a few minutes, I will train you with a simple pistol.” 

“Okay. Thanks!” Hana hurried for the door. Before she exited the cell, she turned around for another brief moment. “You know, for an old lady you’re pretty cool.” 

“Go, get out of here before I change my mind.” Ana shooed her out. Hana giggled as she dashed from the room. 

* * *

 

As it turned out, spending hours and hours of your life playing video games actually _did_ have some benefit – she was a natural with the light gun Ana lent her. Ana seemed more than a little surprised when Hana was able to hit nearly every can and bottle she set up for her.  

“Boomshakalaka!” Hana laughed as a glass bottle exploded upon contact with her shot. “I’m good at this!” 

Ana watched her silently. “ _Wha-pssh_ _!_ ” Hana whipped around and fired at one of the cans. The shot just barely grazed it, but it technically did hit its mark, spurring her to pose triumphantly afterward. 

“Nice shooting!”  

Hana turned around to see Boss and a couple of her close Junker affiliates moving a big hunk of scrap metal inside the base. Boss was staring over at her, smiling just a little bit. 

“Thanks!” Hana called back. As soon as she turned back to Ana she realized the older woman had lowered her mask and angled herself away from both Boss and Hana.  

“You know,” Hana said in a quieter voice, “she’s not that bad. I think she’s just a little messed up. We all are.” 

Ana held a hand out to Hana, palm up. After a moment of confusion Hana held up the light gun. Ana waggled her fingers indicatively. “Oh, um, okay.” Hana dropped the gun into Ana’s open hand. Ana tucked it back into her belt – then withdrew her sniper rifle from its sling on her back. Hana started to hold her hands out, thinking Ana was offering it to her, but quickly drew back as she realized Ana was taking aim at something so far off in the distance Hana couldn’t even see what she was aiming for. The old woman held the scope up to her good eye, hesitated a moment, then pulled the trigger. 

Hana waited several long seconds as Ana put her gun away and started to walk in the direction she had fired her shot. She followed silently as Ana crossed the entire parking lot, slipped through the bars of the unmanned gate, and finally stopped just before some dead bushes on the opposite side of the street. 

At their feet was a dead rabbit with a bullet hole right through its head. The ground behind it held a splatter of blood in a near-perfect line. 

“Oh my gosh.” Hana looked from the rabbit to Ana and then back again. “You headshotted it from all that way off!” 

Ana knelt down to the animal. She picked it up with gentle hands and looked it over. Then she lifted her mask enough to say, “We should eat this out here. It won’t make a proper meal split up over thirty Junkers.” 

Hana was still awestruck. “You just…hit this tiny moving target from that far away? And you’re not even making a big deal out of it?” 

Ana disappeared past the bushes, out of sight of the prison. Hana scrambled after her. “Hey, wait for me! I want some!” 

* * *

 

A rabbit wasn’t much of a meal, but compared to canned food and stale rations it was gourmet. Hana gnawed eagerly at a leg, tearing off whatever bits of meat it held. She’d begun to notice some time ago that it was getting easier for her to tear into the animals she ate. A look in her cell “mirror” had revealed to her a strange mutation she seemed to be undergoing – her teeth were getting sharper, and seemed to be growing out in a more jagged pattern, like crocodile teeth. She didn’t totally mind – it _did_ make eating roadkill and other assorted dead animals a lot easier – but she supposed one surviving flicker of her old self deep inside felt a little sad about it. As shallow as it sounded, she had built her life around looking and being cute. She knew at least half her audience didn’t watch her livestreams because they cared about her gaming strategies. For better or worse, it gave her an edge over her male competitors for stream views. Now even if things ever _did_ go back to the way they were before, she knew they would never be the same for her. 

Hana spat a tiny bone out onto the ground. Ana kept her portion of the rabbit clutched close to her face, obscuring her mouth as she nibbled at it. Hana watched her eat quietly. The old woman sitting across from her at this makeshift fire pit was clearly a skilled soldier, or former soldier at least. She could be some decorated war hero for all Hana knew. Hana could scarcely imagine surviving the hellfire of war just to end up eating wild rabbit with some crocodile-fanged teenager in the middle of a nuclear wasteland.  

“Thank you,” Hana said. 

Ana paused at her meal. “Hm? For what, child?” 

“For teaching me how to use a gun? For getting this rabbit? I don’t know, for a lot of stuff.” 

“Ah. You’re welcome.” She sighed and lowered her shoulders a little. “I never thought I had much in the way of maternal instincts, but I hate seeing children, or even ‘young adults’ like yourself, thrust into such a miserable situation as this. I’m acclimated to it, but you…” 

There was a long, heavy silence between them after that. Hana finished off the last of her half of the rabbit, licking her fingers loudly to break up the silence. After a while Ana finished her share of the meal as well, and dropped the bones into a neat pile on the ground. Neither made a move to get up. 

“Do you wanna leave with me and Junkrat and Roadhog when we go?” Hana finally asked. 

“So you’ve decided?” 

“I mean, if we decide to do it, I guess.” 

Ana folded her arms and leaned back a little.  “I should return home eventually. But I’ve been running for so long now…” 

“Where’s ‘home’?” Hana decided to ask. 

Ana hesitated, as if debating whether or not to answer. “Cairo.” 

“Isn’t that in Egypt?” 

Ana nodded. 

“Wow, that’s far!” Hana tilted her head. “How did you end up all the way down here?” 

“Sometimes it feels like it wasn’t far enough.” Ana took her rifle into her hands and inspected it idly, a seemingly frequent habit for her. “I suppose there isn’t a single place in this world to run from the things I have seen and done.” 

Skipping over her characteristically cryptic answer, Hana decided to press a little further. “So do you have family in Cairo?” 

Ana lifted her stare back to Hana. “You’re a nosy one, aren’t you?” 

Hana shrugged, grinning sheepishly. 

The old woman smiled just a bit. “I do. Or rather I did. They believe me to be dead, as does much of the world.” 

Hana blinked. “Why do they think you’re dead?” 

That spurred a tiny laugh from Ana. “Probably because I faked my own death.” 

“What??” 

Ana waved a hand dismissively. “I shouldn’t be telling you all this. You just – you remind me of…someone, in some ways. Not all ways, but…” She shook her head. “Anyway, that’s really all you need to know in regards to how a soldier from Cairo ended up a scavenger in the Australian Outback. The rest is my secret to keep.” 

“Okay.” They fell into brief quietness again. Then Hana said, “I’m in Australia because my parents moved here from Korea when I was a kid.” 

That garnered a genuine laugh from Ana. “What a scandalous backstory!” 

“I know, right?” Hana giggled. “Heh, but now they’re dead and, so, uh…yeah.” Her tone shifted midsentence as suppressed emotion bubbled to the surface. She laughed a little louder in an attempt to cover it up. “Haha so, y’know, just me now! Bet they never thought I’d be out here all alone at nineteen years old!” 

The concern on Ana’s face reminded her of her mother. Maybe that was spurring the memories back to the surface. Something certainly was, because for the first time in ages Hana felt tears sting her dried-out eyes. 

“Oh, Hana.” Ana reached out for her, but hesitated. Hana buried her face in her gloves and tried to let the tears slip out as quietly as possible, despite how obvious it must have been that she was crying. Her bony shoulders quivered as several quick, shallow breaths escaped her. 

A hand settled on one of her shoulders. She peeked up from her gloves to find Ana kneeling in front of her, still wearing that motherly look of concern. Hana hugged her knees and kept her face as buried as possible.  

“I’m sorry, Hana,” Ana whispered. “Your parents surely loved you. They didn’t abandon you on purpose. Sometimes…sometimes things just happen. I’m sure they would be with you now if they could.” 

Hana bit her lip. In an attempt to move past the tears, she asked Ana, “Do you have any kids?” 

Ana visibly tensed. “I…have a daughter.” 

Hana locked on to her through teary, blurry eyes. “She thinks you’re dead?” 

Ana withdrew, her gaze falling to the ground at their feet. 

Hana continued to stare her down, even as the tears continued to trickle down her face. “She would be so happy to know you’re not actually dead.” 

Ana got to her feet, facing away from Hana. Hana got up and moved to stand in front of her, moving with her when Ana tried to avert her gaze. 

“You should come with us. Once we get out of Australia we can go wherever we want. You could go back there. You could tell her you’re alive!” Hana sniffled, the tears drying up as her mind moved forward to her next train of thought.  

Ana turned back toward her. “…You’re right, child. I should never have left her.” She pulled her hood up over her snow white hair. “I don’t know that she wants me back, but I should at least give her the option, shouldn’t I?” 

Hana slid her goggles down to cover her reddened eyes. “She’ll want you back. I bet you’re a good Mom. Um, other than faking your own death and hiding halfway across the world.”  

To her surprise, Ana chuckled dryly. “Ah yes, other than that _minor_ parenting flaw…” 

Hana reached out and gently grasped one of Ana’s hands in her own. Mustering a smile, she said to her, “Come on, let’s get back. We should talk to Junkrat and Roadhog and start planning what we’re gonna do.” 

Ana glanced down at Hana’s hand in hers. Hana tugged gently in the direction of the Junker base. After a moment’s hesitation, she allowed Hana to lead her back to the prison. 


	7. The Shadow of Life

Junkrat was ecstatic at Hana’s decision to leave with him and Roadhog. He was certainly more excited than Hana herself, who could only think of what lay ahead for her on that path. Murder, theft, all supposedly leading back to a “normal” life for her – how could that be? Hana already felt that she would never truly return to her old self. Killing people to steal their stuff seemed the last way to re-evoke her lost humanity.

She and Junkrat spent the evening plotting exactly what was going to go down. Junkrat had some ideas, but they were scattered and mostly pretty half-baked, forcing Hana to piece them together into something coherent. The plan they ultimately came up with was fairly straightforward – sneak out of the prison between watch shift changes early in the morning, pretend to offer Hana’s mech, some of Junkrat’s explosives, and whatever else it took to get the boat owners to accept, then kill them, retrieve their offerings, and take the boat. Junkrat had caught a glimpse of the boat when he’d encountered the men the first time – it was apparently a pretty big ship, not your average motorboat for weekend outings. None of them had any idea how to pilot a ship, but upon Hana mentioning she’d steered one a lot in an Assassin’s Creed game it was decided she would be the first to have a go at directing their path. Hana had no idea if real, modern boats actually steered like virtual sail boats from the seventeen hundreds. She assumed not, but that was apparently the extent of any of their experiences with boating.

“This is gonna be fun.” Junkrat hopped excitedly to the other side of his cell, where the tire he’d been tinkering with lately leaned against the wall. “Maybe I’ll get a chance to try this baby out. I just put the finishing touches on the ripcord tonight, in fact!”

Hana smirked a little. “Are you ever _not_ cooking up some new explodey thing?”

“Well hey, I got plenty’a time on my hands! Might as well be making something.”

“Guess explosives are one of the only hobbies worth taking up anymore.”

“Right!” He hobbled back over to Hana, taking a seat on the other end of the cot. “Speaking of, you never did let me try to turn that mech of yours into a big ol’ bomb. Now _that_ would be a hell of an explosion!”

“Yeah, and then I wouldn’t have a mech anymore!” Hana folded her arms. “I happen to like it very much. I wouldn’t want it blown to smithereens.”

“Pfft.” Junkrat waved her off. “Who turns down the chance to make a seven-foot scrap bomb.”

A ringing alarm went off throughout the prison. Like trained dogs Hana and Junkrat both perked up.

“All right assholes,” Boss’ voice over the generator-rigged P.A. system rang through the halls. “Dinner’s ready. First come first serve, unless you want to have to beat someone up over it.”

Hana was still pretty sated from the rabbit earlier, but she couldn’t let on that she’d eaten a meal instead of bringing it back to split with the Junkers. When Junkrat started hopping out into the hall, rambling about how “bloody starvin’” he was, Hana wordlessly followed him.

* * *

 

Dinner was uneventful. Hana kept looking for Ana, but saw no sign of her. Roadhog had to pull the Junker with the animal skull (Hana had never learned their name) off another Junker at one point for whatever reason, but other than that basically nothing happened. Hana almost wished something would. It would help take her mind off everything else for just a minute.

Several times she caught herself staring over at Boss. Usually with a personal entourage, tonight the other girl sat alone. Curiously she didn’t have any food in front of her – only a notebook she was scratching away at. Maybe she’d wanted some time to herself, Hana thought, although the way she kept looking at everyone around her didn’t really make it seem that way. On another day Hana might have approached her, but she couldn’t face her tonight.

After dinner Hana returned to her cell and attempted to sleep. Of course she failed completely. Thoughts of what lay ahead plagued her. Maybe she shouldn’t have said yes to the plan. Maybe she should just stay with the Junkers. It wasn’t really that bad, was it? So she didn’t have internet, or running water, or food that wasn’t tainted with radioactivity – she had already learned to live without that stuff. And besides, did the old world really have any place for someone like her now?

She thought back on all the horrors she had witnessed the first days and weeks after the explosion. So many people, people she had known since her childhood, lying scattered, sick and dying, throughout the remains of her neighborhood. The smoke cloud full of toxins had risen up in the sky right before Hana’s eyes, temporarily blacking out the sun itself. She could remember people choking, people just collapsing all around her. Buildings, shaken from the force of the explosion, crumbling with who knew how many people inside. A lot of her memories after that were a blur. Her next clear one was of her sick parents trying to care for her even though they were pale as ghosts and struggling for breath. Maybe they were the reason she survived. Hana wished she could remember.

After several hours of lying awake Hana finally admitted defeat. She would get no rest that night. With bleary eyes and a shambling step she wandered out of her cell and down the hall. A slow minute later she was knocking at the bars of Junkrat’s cell. He was apparently awake too, for he sat up from his bed instantaneously.

“Hey Junky,” she said through a stifled yawn, “you’re up?”

“Hey Deevs. Yeah, I, uh, couldn’t really sleep.” He got up, affixed his metal leg, and met her at the bars. “You neither?”

“Nah.”

Junkrat pulled the door open and let her in. Hana sat down on his cot. The bed was warm where he must have been lying for some time, struggling, as she was, to get even a wink of sleep.

“Are you sure you really want to leave?” she asked him after sitting in silence for a minute.

Junkrat scratched the back of his neck. “I kinda have to. It’s a long story, but…”

Hana stared at him curiously, waiting to see if he would continue.

“Eh, during the early days when all this happened, I went snoopin’ around the wrecked omnium. Ya can’t get too close, it’s just way too toxic. But I, uh…well I kinda fibbed and used it to get my way with other scrappers I ran into on the road. Told them I found some big ol’ secret in there, and I’d tell them if they didn’t kill me.”

“What did they do when they found out you were lying?”

“I didn’t exactly tell ‘em I was lying. Usually I just made a break for it. But uh, word started gettin’ around that I’d found some crazy valuable treasure inside the omnium and was keeping it all to myself. So then on top of the people who wanted to kill me for double-crossing ‘em, all the looters and bounty hunters started coming for me too. Seemed like every last survivor in the Outback wanted me dead for some reason or another.”

“How did you end up here?”

“I came to the Junkers lookin’ for a bodyguard. This was before Boss rounded ‘em all up and got ‘em organized like this. I found Roadhog and made a deal with him – he protects me, I split the spoils of everything we steal 50-50.”

Hana chewed her lip. “So that’s why you wanna steal stuff? To pay back Roadhog?”

Junkrat laughed. “Nah, mate, I’m just a criminal at heart. I’d be stealing shit no matter what.”

Hana folded her arms pensively. “When I was a kid I used to steal Pokémon cards,” she eventually murmured. “It was great. I always had all the best cards at school and nobody knew how I got them all.”

That spurred more laughter from Junkrat. “Oi, that’s golden! I can picture you stuffin’ cards in your pockets and runnin’ out like you just robbed a bank.”

“That’s probably how it went, honestly.”

Once their mutual laughter died down, Junkrat turned to her. He had a bit of a gleam in his eye, and Hana could sense he was working something out in his head. “So,” he said, “if you could steal anything in the world, what would you take?”

She’d never really thought about that. The chance to have anything in the world? “Well I’d probably take a really nice computer, like, the nicest gaming PC on the market–”

 _“You lying bitch!_ ”

Hana’s head snapped up at the sound of a man yelling somewhere deep in the prison. Junkrat pushed her down onto the cot. “Ow, what are you–” She was cut off again, this time by Junkrat, who shushed her and laid low beside her on the mattress.

It didn’t take long for Hana to realize what he was doing – a dozen Junkers lumbered down the hall, all brandishing their deadly homebrew weapons, apparently itching for a fight. It took just a few steps for someone to apparently bump into another, resulting in one of them cracking the other with a bat wrapped in barbed wire. The struck Junker scrambled to his feet after the blow, chasing after the rogue lot.

“ _You think screaming at me makes you a big man?? Huh??_ ” Boss’ voice answered the first, just as loud and seemingly unfazed by whomever was screaming at her. “ _Back the fuck off._ ”

“What’s going on?” Hana whispered.

“No idea.” Junkrat kept his hand rested lightly on Hana’s back. The gesture was surprisingly comforting. Hana nestled down into the old bed, listening and trying not to make any noise.

They heard some sort of general commotion after that, presumably as the other Junkers reached Boss and started escalating the situation. Hana could still hear Boss’ voice, but it was quickly getting drowned out by multiple male voices shouting over her. When it didn’t seem to be dying down Hana sat up in the bed. “What if they’re hurting her?”

“What are you gonna do about it?” Junkrat whispered back. “Jump in there and start throwin’ punches at those big lugs?” He took hold of one of her tiny gloved hands and held it up for emphasis.

Shaking loose from his grip, she hopped up and went for the door.

“D.Va, wait! You can’t–” Junkrat pursued her to the door. “ _Hana!_ ”

“ _Jamie!_ ” She spun around, taking some satisfaction in the surprise on his face at her use of his real name. “I’m going.”

She threw open the door and hurried out. Not a moment later she heard Junkrat’s peg leg tapping at the floor as he hobbled after her. “All right, all right, wait for me then!”

It didn’t take long for them to find Boss. A whole group had clustered around her, none looking particularly pleased with their self-assigned leader. Behind Boss the door to the kitchen, usually locked tight, was busted open and hanging loose on its hinges. The Junker guard with the animal skull on their head was on all fours in the doorway, their skull jaw pulled open in a snarl as they glared up at Boss. In one of their clawed hands was a crushed empty can.

“It’s not a big deal – we can get more. We’ll find more!” Boss’ hands were raised defensively in front of her, perhaps a subconscious attempt to keep back the swarm of angry-looking Junkers shouting at her.

“We’re only _here_ because you had plenty’a food. No food, no reason to stay here.” A giant man with a face full of tattoos, who Hana knew called himself Ace, took a threatening step toward Boss. In his hands was some sort of rusty scrap gun.

“We haven’t looted everywhere yet. There might be – there’s probably some sort of factory or something we haven’t found yet. There’s gotta be something.” Boss glanced nervously about the crowd. When she caught sight of Hana her eyes widened just a bit. The tiny action was apparently enough to get a few of the Junkers to turn in Hana and Junkrat’s direction.

“What’s goin’ on here?” Junkrat asked one of the less-threatening ones, the teenage boy with patchy skin and a missing arm that Hana had seen her first day there.

The boy scratched his head. “No food. Boss been lying to us. Empty cans.” He pointed with his good arm toward the kitchen door. Upon closer inspection Hana could see empty bottles and cans all over the floor. The Junker guard might have knocked them all down to prove a point.

“Look, I’ll go for a food run myself, okay? I’ll go right now.” Boss took a few steps to the side, but was immediately met with more Junkers blocking her path. “Move.”

“Don’t bother. We’ll find it ourselves.” Ace lifted his gun to Boss as she was turning back toward him. Hana cried out without thinking.

“Boss!”

Before Boss could get out of his path, Ace pressed his gun to her forehead. With a sickening blast the gun unloaded right between her eyes, sending her jerking backward. For a split second she seemed quite aware of what just happened – long enough for her eyes to slide up to the gunshot hole in her forehead. Then she collapsed to the floor.

Hana was about to scream again, but Junkrat covered her mouth before she could. The gunshot threw the already-rowdy crowd into chaos around them. The Junkers all started shouting, seemingly in excitement, and half of them dispersed to start looting whatever remained in the kitchen and cafeteria. Junkrat pretended to be looking around for things to loot too, but he kept a hold on Hana’s arm and did not allow them to get separated by the crowd.

Once most of the Junkers had dispersed Hana cautiously approached Boss where she lay on the ground, sprawled out like a ragdoll. She sank to her knees beside her. “Boss…I’m sorry…”

Strangely, there didn’t seem to be any blood from her wound. As Hana leaned down to take a better look at it, suddenly Boss’ eyes flew open. Hana shrieked, drawing Junkrat to her side in an instant. “What? What’s – holy crap!”

“Ugh.” Boss reached up, felt around her gunshot wound, and then – to Hana’s shock and horror – pushed her fingers inside it and came back out with the bullet.

“You’re alive??” Hana watched in astonishment as she tossed the bullet away. It seemed she didn’t immediately register Hana and Junkrat’s presence. When she did her facial expression changed. Before Hana could say anything else the other girl took on a bizarre, sickly green glow to her skin. She seemed to almost melt in front of Hana’s eyes, disappearing into the floor as if she were never there to begin with.

“Uh…” Junkrat scratched his head. “Well, that just happened.”

“I don’t understand, how could someone survive being shot point-blank between the eyes like that?” Hana whispered. “And just _pull it out_ themselves afterward??”

They heard a noise behind them, like a metal chain scraping against something. They turned to find Roadhog tossing aside a smaller Junker, who looked to have just eaten a faceful of ammo from his scrap gun. It took only a moment for Hana to look around the giant man and notice her mech lying on its side behind him. “My mech!” She leaped up and ran for it. “What happened to it?”

Roadhog swung his chain hook toward it, latching on and pulling it over to Hana. Hana immediately climbed inside the back door and examined its interior for damage. Immediately she noticed its settings were all messed with, like someone had been desperately trying to figure out how to operate it. No way it could have been Roadhog. It must have been that scrawny Junker he had just shot.

She felt a good deal safer once inside her mech, but she still knew one thing for certain. This place was falling, and they had to make their escape now.

Junkrat hopped up on the back of her mech as Hana stomped down the hall. They stopped at Junkrat’s cell just long enough for him to grab the bag of things he’d been packing for the escape. On the way out of the cell he paused at the tire he’d been tweaking. With scarcely a moment’s hesitation he snatched it up and tied it to his back with some rope he’d scavenged for fuse-making. He was back atop Hana’s mech in a matter of seconds.

Not many of the Junkers apparently wanted to scrap with a giant mech, but those who did got Roadhog’s hook and shotgun to the face. By the time they made it to Hana’s cell, everything had already been overturned by another Junker. She hadn’t had much to her name, but just knowing that someone had rooted through it without a single care for her ownership made her feel violated.

The animal skull Junker darted past her cell. They were carrying an armload of weapons.

“Okay, we better get the hell outta here now.” Junkrat tapped the leg of Hana’s mech. “Like, now now.”

Hana piloted her mech out into the hall, then spun it around. “Wait, where’s Ana?” She hadn’t seen the old woman in the chaos at all.

“Who the hell’s Ana?”

“Hana!”

Hana turned in her mech. Her eyes lit up when she saw Ana ducked low and hurrying down the hall, her rifle at the ready. Her mask was missing.

“Whoa, The Wastelander’s an old lady!” Junkrat cried. Hana bopped him in the head with the arm of her mech. “Ow!”

As soon as Ana reached them Hana offered her the arm of her mech that Junkrat wasn’t riding on. Ana hesitated, but when more gunshots rang out in a cell down the hall she quickly climbed up onto the mech and clung carefully to it with her free hand. Hana pushed the joysticks all the way forward, propelling the mech into a full run. She didn’t dare engage the boosters with Ana onboard.

Thus began their mad dash out of the prison. At one point the mech took a few bullets from an unknown source. Hana looked up just in time to see a female Junker leaping down at her from the second floor. Before she could think it through she instinctively fired up the boosters. Junkrat shrieked as the mech blasted forward, just barely clearing the doorway to the main lobby.

When they stopped Hana made sure to check on Junkrat and Ana. “You guys okay?”

Ana nodded. Junkrat exhaled. “Yeah, but maybe let me know next time you’re gonna do that, Deevs.”

“Sorry. I didn’t exactly plan on it.”

A minute later Roadhog came chugging through the doorway. Once they were all together again Hana continued toward the prison entrance. It seemed clear – but as soon as they reached the doors and Junkrat hopped down to open them, they quickly realized it was locked from the outside. “God, of course it is,” Hana muttered. “It’s a prison. Boss probably has the keys.”

“Don’t worry, guys.” Junkrat fished some kind of round metal device out of his rucksack. “Leave this to me! Stand back!”

Hana moved the mech back. Junkrat set the device down by the door and pulled out some sort of handheld…detonator?

With a huge explosion, and a sound oddly reminiscent of a car alarm, the device blew the doors wide open. Hana stormed out with her fellow Junkers in tow.

The night, without streetlights or parking lot lights, was pitch black and ominous as all hell. Regardless, Hana felt fairly safe with her only three remaining friends at her side. “So, um,” she said after a few moments of silence, “how do we get to that boat?”

“Uhh…Roadie remembers, right?” Junkrat looked at him expectantly. Roadhog pointed out into the wastes. “Right, I knew he’d remember. He’s a genius.”

An explosion from inside the prison spurred them onward. “Man, those Junkers were just waiting for a chance to…” Hana trailed off when another sound caught her attention. It was muffled and quiet and coming from just beyond the prison gate.

With a few cautious steps forward, she turned and picked up on a small, barely moving figure concealed by shadow, curled up against the outer fence. In the dim moonlight Hana was able to identify it only once she closed the distance between them. “…Boss?”

Boss sat against the fence with her face in her hands. When Hana spoke she seemed to startle a bit, then gradually lifted her head from her hands. Hana noticed her eyes had a bizarre, almost reflective quality to them – or maybe they were actually glowing.

She climbed out of the mech and knelt down at Boss’ side. Ana and Roadhog kept their weapons in hand, looking around for any potential attackers. Junkrat remained on top of the mech, tossing some sort of round ball, most likely an explosive of some kind, from palm to palm.

“Are you okay?” There were so many questions Hana wanted to ask, but that one presented itself first.

Boss’ shoulders sagged as she stared off into the distance. “I knew we were running low on food. I should’ve warned them sooner. I just…didn’t know how to tell them. I was scared of how they’d react.”

Hana looked her over. “Um, I don’t really care about that right now. I’m kinda more concerned with how you’re even still _alive_.”

Boss leaned the back of her head against the fence, now staring up into the cloudy, polluted sky. With a tone oddly devoid of emotion, she said, “I’m not. Not really.”

“You’re not alive?”

"Can I tell you something?"

“Um, sure?”

Boss took a deep, slow breath, as if stalling her next sentence. "I was inside the omnium when it got blown up."

Hana drew back a bit. “What? You were?”

Boss nodded. “I remember it all. All us engineering students were on a trip there, to see how things worked inside of it. My whole class…my Advanced Engineering professor…” She smiled a bitter smile. “Funny, that 'Liberation Front' claimed to care so much about human lives, yet they never even bothered to check if there were any of us inside the building they stormed and blew to pieces."

“How did you survive it?”

“That’s my point, kiddo.” She folded her arms. “I didn’t. At least, not totally.”

She held out one booted foot. As soon as she touched it to the ground it took on that greenish hue again, like how she looked after she’d been shot, and began to “melt” into the ground right before Hana’s eyes.

"I felt myself die. But then I woke up like this. Like I’m a ghost, but not. Like my soul got melted to my body or something and couldn’t get out. Still can’t. I’m guessing it had something to do with all my atoms essentially getting, you know, microwaved.”

Hana shook her head in confusion. It was so much to process. “So, what, you’re trying to tell me you think you’re dead? That you’ve _been_ dead all this time?”

“Oh, I know I’m dead. It’s just easier to say I ‘kind of’ am. I don’t know. Makes it, like, easier to cope with or something, I guess.” She fiddled with her gloves, then resumed staring off into space. “I haven’t eaten since all this started. I told the Junkers that I eat after they all get their share. Probably didn’t help them to trust me any more. And that’s kind of why I let the food situation go – I didn’t mean it, it just wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. I was more just thinking about the whole concept of the Junkers…of being part of building a new society. Of being remembered for something.”

Hana studied her for a few long seconds. “…No,” she eventually said. “You can’t be dead. That doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“Did you not see the part where I picked a bullet out of my brain and then phased through the floor?” She punched Hana in the arm, but it was a half-hearted gesture. “Uh, sorry for that, by the way. I just didn’t really know what to do in the situation. So I just kinda…fled.”

Hana lowered her eyes to the ground. She could hear Junkrat saying something in the background, but it didn’t really register. This girl she’d gotten to know, whom she’d lived with and almost even called a friend after a while, was dead? Blown up in a horrible, fiery explosion laced with so much radioactivity that it screwed her atoms up and prevented her from actually being able to die…

“So you tried to organize the Junkers into something so that you’d be remembered.”

Boss shrugged, averting her eyes.

“Well,” Hana said, her tone changing, “you don’t have to stay with those jerks anymore. Because we’re leaving, and you’re coming with us.”

“What??” She heard that interjection from Junkrat loud and clear.

“Oh God, don’t go being a big soft-hearted philanthropist on me.” Boss pushed her away lightly. “Leave me, Deevs. I’ll make some kinda life for myself out here, even if the Junkers don’t want me around. Hell, it’s not like they can kill me.” Ignoring her words, Hana took her by the sleeve of her jacket and began dragging her to her feet. “Ah, hey, don’t rip that – dude, let go!” Despite her protests, Boss did not physically resist as Hana pulled her over to the mech.

“We’re taking Boss with us,” she told Junkrat, Roadhog, and Ana. Ana gave her a look, but did not challenge her decree. It was obvious Junkrat had some things to say about it, but he just barely managed to hold his tongue. Boss climbed onto the back of the mech, hanging on to its rusty truck bumper. Knowing what she knew then, Hana realized just how little weight the other girl added when compared to Junkrat and even Ana. She hadn’t noticed when they were testing the boosters, but it was certainly noticeable now.

“So where are you guys headed, anyway?” Boss leaned around front to ask Hana.

“Well, apparently there are these guys who are selling boat rides out of Australia. We’re thinking we’re just gonna take their boat and go without them.”

“Wait, you’re leaving the Outback?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.”

“And you’re not even just going to Sydney or something? You’re gonna flee the whole continent?”

“Wait, what’s in Sydney?” Hana paused the mech and looked up at her curiously.

Boss raised an eyebrow. “Civilization? I don’t know, if you want to leave the Outback I don’t see why you’d want to take a boat somewhere when you could travel there much easier.”

Hana looked around at her companions. “…The rest of Australia isn’t destroyed?”

“Wait, you didn’t know that?” Junkrat scratched his greasy hair idly. “I always thought you were just here for the same reasons we were. Didn’t like society, or whatever.”

“Wait, you _knew_ we could get to safety and civilization, and you just didn’t bother??” Hana growled. “ _Jamie!_ ”

“Agh, stop usin’ my real name! It’s scary!” He drew back in mock terror.

“Ana, did you know this?” Hana asked her next.

The old woman nodded. “I’m sorry, Hana. I guess I assumed the same as Junkrat, that you felt you couldn’t return to civilization and therefore didn’t want to. I understood the feeling.”

“Well screw this, then! Let’s just go to some part of Australia that isn’t all radioactive and ruined!”

“Uh, Hana–” Junkrat cleared his throat. “I still got that, uh, promise to Roadhog I gotta make good on. Remember?”

“You can’t steal stuff in Sydney?”

“You think we’re gonna be able to take any kind of plane or train or bus armed to the teeth like this?” He crossed his arms. “On a boat there won’t be nobody to stop us. We can go wherever we want.”

Hana glanced up at Boss again. “What do you think? Should we take the boat, or take our chances in the rest of Australia?”

Boss seemed surprised that her opinion was going to be considered. She hesitated for a moment, and then asked, “What’s your end goal here?”

“International crime spree.”

“What??” Ana leveled Hana with a scornful Mom Glare.

“Oh yeah, I was gonna tell you about that...” Hana chuckled uncomfortably.

“Well if you’re going for an international crime spree then yeah, a boat would be quieter and more subtle when you’re traveling from place to place. A lot slower, though.” Boss tapped her chin. “If I had enough time and resources I could probably mod the boat. Hook some boosters up to it like I did with your mech. That’d speed it up a bit.”

“Hana, is that really the path you want to take?” Ana murmured. “You can do so much better than…”

“Holy crap, I just realized you’re the Wastelander.” Boss stared at Ana until Ana turned away. “I didn’t know you were a lady! Awesome.”

“My mask was stolen from me in the prison,” Ana muttered. “I don’t know who has it now.”

“Um, so anyway…” Hana started slowly moving the mech forward. “If anyone wants to walk, feel free to, ‘cause I’m scared I’m gonna knock you guys off with my bad driving.”

Roadhog reached over and plucked Junkrat from the mech, throwing him over his shoulder.

“Okay, that’s one solution I guess.”

Boss relocated to the free arm of the mech. “Hey…” she said as they started back into motion, “are you sure about this?”

“About leaving?”

“About bringing me.”

“Eh, if you cause any trouble I’ll just suck you up in one of those ghost vacuums.”

Boss laughed. “Kinda nice to have it out in the open, honestly. I probably should’ve told the Junkers…”

“We all have our secrets.” Ana pushed a loose lock of silver hair back under her hood.

“I can see that.” Boss smiled a little. “I like your tattoo, by the way. I did a project on Horus in middle school.”

Ana nodded. “Thank you. It’s very important to me.”

Hana picked up the pace a little once she heard another explosion behind her. She couldn’t stop herself from pausing to steal one last glance back at the prison. It hadn’t been the most luxurious of homes, but it had shielded her from the elements and given her food and a relatively safe place to sleep for nearly two weeks. Seeing it slowly being destroyed in front of her was more than a little depressing.

She wondered what her parents would think of her current scenario. Riding in a modified, radioactive power loader, carrying an old woman and a dead girl away from an exploding prison. On their way to go steal a boat and probably murder a bunch of people in the process. Their little girl was really all grown up now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been really enjoying writing this fic so far, but the lack of any real reception to it is making me feel like I might not continue it much longer. It's significantly less popular than my other fics (even for smaller franchises), and I haven't had any feedback at all for the last few chapters. I'm still working on it for my own enjoyment, but if you're still reading this fic and enjoying it I'd really like to know. Because at the moment I feel like there's a possibility no one is reading it and I'm just wasting my time.
> 
> Edit: I really appreciate you guys letting me know how much you like the fic! I really just wasn't sure anyone was reading it. Thanks again for your support!


	8. The Death of the Hero

Roadhog didn’t turn out to be the best at giving directions. They wandered through the dark, eerily silent Outback for what must have been hours. Junkrat was passed out in Roadhog’s giant arms, snoring lightly. Having been unable to sleep earlier in the night, Hana was quickly growing tired as well. Her vision was blurring slightly, and at one point the mech nearly toppled over a large rock, sending Boss and Ana reeling. Hana quickly apologized and shook her head to try to clear away the sleepiness.

“Hey D.Va, um…” Boss studied her face in the dim moonlight. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. I’m still going, aren’t I?”

“You almost threw us to the ground.”

“It won’t happen again. I’m fine.”

Not ten minutes later Hana startled when Boss called her name. “W-what?? I’m awake!”

“Then why are we stopped?”

Hana glanced around in confusion. Roadhog was stopped several meters in front of her, waiting. Ana and Boss were both just staring at her.

“…Guess I…nodded off.”

“We can find a place to rest for the night,” Ana said softly. “As long as it’s somewhere safe enough.”

“I could take over steering the mech,” Boss piped up. “I don’t need to sleep.”

“No.” Hana stifled a yawn. “I can keep…I can…”

Her eyes drifted shut for a brief moment. When she opened them again Boss was standing in front of the mech, staring her down.

“…You just wanna drive the mech,” Hana mumbled.

“Yeah, no shit. It’s awesome!”

“Ugh. Fine.” Hana crawled out the back of the mech. “But if you try to pull any stuff…”

“I won’t. I promise.” Boss, being only slightly taller than Hana, was able to fit inside the mech with relative ease. She ran her hands over the control panel, a tiny, excited grin finding its way across her face. Hana climbed up onto the arm of the mech that Boss had previously occupied. With a gentle sweeping motion Boss brought the two arms together, creating a sort of metal cradle between them. Hana curled up on the mech’s arms, near to Ana, who was carefully observing everything happening around her, and closed her eyes.

“I’m just gonna rest my eyes for a few minutes,” Hana mumbled. “Not gonna…actually sleep.”

“Sure.” Boss started moving the mech forward. Her control of it was surprisingly fluid – Hana barely even felt each step as she rested her head in the crook of her arm. Somewhere in her fog of half-wake, half-sleep she heard Boss say “I won’t disappoint you, Hana. I really appreciate you still sticking by me…”

Shortly after that the world around Hana went dark and quiet, as sleep finally claimed her.

 

* * *

 

An indeterminate amount of time later Hana became aware of something holding her that wasn’t a pair of metal arms. She opened her eyes to find Boss sitting against a wall in some dark room, staring absently into the darkness. Hana was lying against her shoulder, she realized, and Boss had one arm around her to keep her from toppling over in her sleep.

“Ngh…” Hana lifted her goggles and rubbed one blurry eye. “Boss?”

Boss turned toward her. “Oh, hi. Feeling better?”

“Where are we? How long was I asleep?”

Boss shushed her, gesturing to the far wall of the relatively small room. Hana squinted. In the darkness she could just make out Roadhog and Junkrat sacked out in one corner. In the farthest corner, away from everyone else, Ana was resting sitting up, her rifle still laid out across her lap. “We found this old building still standing. Well, most of it anyway. Enough to sleep in. And you’ve been asleep for maybe two hours?”

“Where’s my mech?”

Boss pointed over near Ana. Sure enough Hana could see some big bulky thing in the shadows.

“If you want to sleep more, you can.” Boss maintained her gentle hold on her. “I’m keeping watch here.”

Hana was going to protest, but two hours of sleep simply didn’t afford her enough energy to argue. She laid her head back down on Boss’ shoulder.

“Did you have a lot of friends before all this?” Boss suddenly asked.

“Um, kinda?” Hana let her eyes drift shut. “Not really as a kid, but once I started getting more seriously into gaming I met a lot of people.”

Boss continued to stare straight ahead. “Is it like this?”

Hana opened one eye. “Like sleeping in a wrecked building with a bunch of near-strangers?”

“Like doing stuff in a group. Looking out for each other. I don’t know.”

“Oh. Uh, I guess.” Hana closed her eyes again, trying to drift back into sleep. She furrowed her brows when Boss spoke up yet again.

“Are we friends?”

“I guess??” Hana tried not to sound irritated. She failed.

“Sorry, I’m being annoying.” Boss withdrew from her slightly. “I’ll shut up.”

Hana relaxed her muscles as she let sleep slowly reclaim her. Before she fell completely back into unconsciousness, though, she murmured, “We’re friends.”

“Really??” Boss responded too loudly, causing the others in the room to stir. “Cool. Okay. Um, goodnight then. …Pal.”

“Pfft.” Hana snickered a little. “You’re a nerd. Goodnight.”

Despite her tiredness, it was difficult for Hana to fall asleep knowing Boss would just be sitting there waiting for her to wake up. She spent a long while simply pretending to sleep, but somewhere in the pretending genuine sleep steeped itself upon her.

 

* * *

 

The radiation frying Hana’s brain had turned her dreams into patchwork surrealism. Nothing made sense or went together in any comprehensible way. So she really wasn’t surprised when she started hearing Junkrat’s disembodied voice while she was dreaming about swimming in an ocean of decomposing garbage.

“Deeeeeeevaaaaaa…”

“Whaaaaat?” she answered in the same sing-songy tone.

“S’time to get up.”

“I’m up. I’m trying to get through all this freaking…garbage.”

Junkrat laughed. “What?”

Finally Hana was roused enough to awaken from her dream. She found herself face-to-face with Junkrat. “Oh.”

“Pleasant dreams?” He was still snickering.

“Shut up.” She blinked the remaining sleep from her eyes and looked around. It was still dark, but it was that pre-dawn dark, laced with faint hues of orange and purple. They cast just enough light into the room for her to make out Junkrat’s stupid ugly-cute face in front of her.

She reached out and pushed him backwards, knocking him onto his butt. “Hey!” This time he didn’t hesitate to strike back, grabbing her up and draping her over his shoulders. Then he started spinning in circles.

“Aghhh! Put me down!” Hana pounded his back with both fists, kicking and squirming futilely. “I’m gonna get you back for this!”

The front door of the building burst open. Junkrat stopped spinning, and after the dizziness wore off Hana was able to see that it was Roadhog in the doorway. He jerked a thumb behind him, then stepped aside. A small bonfire was going just outside the door.

“Great, breakfast’s ready!” Junkrat hurried out the door, still carrying Hana.

Outside Ana was tending to the fire, while Boss held out a dead possum stuck through with a stick. Its mouth and eyes were open, as if it were killed instantly and without much time to react. Upon closer inspection Hana realized it had a hole in its head. Ana’s handiwork, surely.

“Morning.” Boss turned the possum slightly, cooking its other side. “Ana’s a great shot. She got this thing all the way in the bushes over there!” She pointed to a patch of underbrush in the far distance. “Crazy.”

“It isn’t much.” Ana glanced around at the group. “Split between five people…”

“Four.” Boss lifted a hand dismissively. “I don’t need any.”

“Right. So, four.”

Roadhog sat down a few feet from the fire. Junkrat joined him at his side. Hana sat beside Junkrat, glancing over at him occasionally. At one point they looked over at each other at the same time. Hana giggled a little. Junkrat stuck his tongue out at her.

“Okay, I think this is done.” Boss dropped it to the ground, pulled a knife from her belt and started slicing into it. “I’m gonna try to split this up as even as possible. I’m a neutral party, so that’ll help.” A minute later she was handing out chunks of meat. Hana hoped it wasn’t obvious to anyone else that she clearly got the biggest and best-looking piece. Boss all but pushed it into her hands – then once she was done distributing the food she came and sat down directly between Hana and Junkrat.

“Not enough room anywhere else?” Junkrat muttered.

“Excuse me?” Boss folded her arms. “I want to sit next to Hana.”

“I noticed.” He took a bite of the possum meat and loudly chomped on it. “Only way you could be closer to ‘er is if you were straight up her arse.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Boss was surprisingly defensive about it. “We’re friends. Friends sit near each other.”

Junkrat chortled. “Sure, sure. It ain’t none of my business anyhow. But, uh…” He leaned behind Boss, over to Hana. “Just throwin’ it out there, if you’re lookin’ for a man to, uh, spice things up between ya”–he winked at her–“keep me in mind?”

“Wait, what?” Hana cocked a brow at him. “What are you talking a–wait, me and Boss aren’t, like, a thing!”

Boss leveled Junkrat with a look of disgust, but did not protest his assumption.

“Wait, you’re not?” His sly smile gave way to a look of confusion. “Then why’d you bring her with us?”

“Because, I don’t know, I couldn’t just leave her there with a bunch of people who tried to kill her?” Hana huffed. “Jeez Jamie, you thought I was screwing around with Boss?”

“I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to it,” Boss chimed in. Upon Junkrat and Hana shifting their attention to her she simply shrugged.

“Oh, to be young again.” The three of them glanced up at Ana, who wore a small, teasing smile, keeping her gaze distant from them. Roadhog nodded in apparent agreement with her.

Hana loudly cleared her throat, her cheeks flushing bright red. “So _anyway_ , I’d like to just eat my gross possum meat please.”

“Oi, that’s no way to talk about yer girlfriend.”

Hana chucked a bone at Junkrat.

They ate in relative silence after that. At some point Hana became hyperaware of Boss just watching her eat. _Jeez, I tell her we’re friends and now she wants to have sex with me._ The Outback sure was a weird place.

After a while, Ana eventually broke the silence. “So Hana,” she said, fixing solely on her, “I think you should try to get to Sydney.”

“Huh? Why?”

The old woman blotted her mouth with a corner of her cloak. “Do I need to explain why you shouldn’t be embarking on an international crime spree?”

“You said she’d be cool about it,” Junkrat murmured.

“I figured she would be.” Hana folded her arms. “What am I supposed to do in Sydney, anyway? Check myself into a homeless shelter or something?”

Ana didn’t seem to have an answer.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

“I just want you to be safe.” Ana’s response was so quiet Hana almost didn’t hear it. Hana took so long to formulate a response that the conversation changed topic before she could get it out. Junkrat started bragging about his plans for them overseas instead. He had some grand dreams – stealing the Crown Jewels out of England was just one heist on his lengthy wishlist – and Hana was fairly certain they wouldn’t complete a single one. Hell, they were probably going to die at sea when they realized none of them knew how to operate a damn boat. Oh well. It would be fun while it lasted.

After “breakfast” Boss was eager to get moving. She seemed surprisingly okay with the idea of becoming an infamous international criminal. Hana was a little surprised by it, until she remembered how much emphasis Boss had consistently placed on one thing – being remembered. That was why she wanted to be in charge of the Junkers. Why she wanted them to succeed and have a historical impact. When you’re dead, Hana supposed, there wasn’t much else to aspire toward.

She would certainly be remembered if they managed to make a name for themselves around the world.

Roadhog led their journey through the wastes, Hana back in her mech, everyone else trailing behind. They traveled onward and onward until they started to notice a change in scenery. Things started to look slightly less…radioactive. Also less like a desert. Hana picked up on a scent she hadn’t smelled in quite some time – the salty smell of a sea town. Her brain tingled with memory neurons trying to fire – she used to smell the sea all the time. All the time in…Busan! Where she’d lived as a kid! She remembered it faintly, her parents taking her to the beach in the summer, determined to yank her away from her video games and out into the sunshine.

Tears threatened her wind-dried eyes again, but this time she fought them off before they could manifest. The sea was nothing to her now but a means of escape. A portal to the rest of the world. Her parents would be happy she was out in nature, right?

They didn’t need any sort of guidance on how to get to the mystery men Junkrat and Roadhog had spoken of. As soon as the Junkers came into view of the ocean a group of men ambushed them. Six of them made themselves known, but movement from nearby bushes and building wreckage implied others were not far. They were surprisingly well armed. Roadhog stepped in front of the group. Boss and Junkrat stayed behind Hana. Ana faced away from them, watching their blind spots.

“What do you have for us?” The men didn’t seem interested in formalities.  Two of them eyed Hana’s mech.

Junkrat looked to Hana. With great reluctance, Hana clambered out the rear door of her mech. She came around beside it and held her arms out in its direction, an offering.

A couple of the men inspected it. “Eh, I guess someone out there’ll buy it,” one said. “Weirdo junk collector or something.”

“All right, so that covers you.” They beckoned for Hana to go join them. The other Junkers all tried to follow her – but the men stopped them. “That covers _her_. What have you all got?”

They traded looks, silently trying to decide what could be given up with minimal impact on their ability to commandeer the boat. Eventually Ana stepped forward. To Hana’s surprise, she held out her rifle. The men inspected it. “Hm. Kinamura. They don’t make these anymore. Nice gun.” One of them took it out of her hands. “Collector value’s kinda ruined with all this chicken scratch on it”–he ran his fingers over the tally marks–“but we can use it, probably.”

Ana came to stand at Hana’s side. Her good eye flicked back and forth, keeping constant tabs on all the strangers around them.

Junkrat stepped up to them next. He dug through his small satchel and pulled out one of the land-mine-looking explosives he’d used to blow open the prison doors. He handed it gingerly to the men, who looked it over with some degree of uncertainty.

While they were looking it over, Junkrat stealthily withdrew something from his pocket. Hana nudged Ana, but Ana was already locked on to it. They took a few steps back, trying to look casual and pretend they had no idea what Junkrat was about to do.

Sure enough, moments later Junkrat pushed the detonator. The man holding the bomb screamed as it exploded in his hands. Hana averted her eyes from the carnage, but was forced to return her gaze to it as the men all leapt into action.

Ana wasted no time incapacitating the man with her rifle. One swift kick to his inner knee sent him sprawling. Ana caught the rifle just before it hit the ground.

One of the men seized Hana from behind. Her scream was choked off by a rope pulled around her neck. She kicked and squirmed, reaching desperately for Ana. Ana was having her own trouble with the man she’d knocked down, who had sprung to his feet and was trying to take her down with sheer force. She seemed reluctant to use her gun, and was instead just barely fending him off physically.

Hana twisted and fought, but it only entangled her further. The man dragged her away from the group by her throat. She choked and sputtered, her vision dimming around the edges as she was denied air longer and longer. _Ana…! Jamie…someone…!_

With a cry, the man crumpled to the ground. Hana gasped in some sweet, sweet air, and then turned to see what had freed her. “Boss!” The other girl stood over the man, who was bleeding on the ground. She slid her machete into the sheath beneath her long leather coat, then offered Hana a hand. Hana grabbed onto her and stumbled to her feet.

A series of _pops_ behind them alerted her again. Boss clutched her gut. In a very similar way to the prison, she staggered forward. This time though, knowing what she knew, Hana could sort of tell it was an act. With a groan Boss collapsed to the ground, but as she went she grabbed Hana’s leg and pulled her down too. Hana sprawled out beside her in the dirt. She closed her eyes but could hear at least one of the men step toward them, probably to ensure they were actually dead or dying.

Just before the man could reach them Hana heard a strange sound – a sound like hoarse, choking laughter – from somewhere behind them. The man cried out as something knocked him back. Hana opened one eye to find Roadhog madly spewing scrap from his gun, barely able to maintain a hold on it as it knocked everyone down and away from the Junkers. It was _Roadhog_ laughing! Hana had never heard him make a sound before.

His scrap gun was great at swatting the men away, but it unfortunately did not seem very lethal to them. Instead they simply turned their attention to the remaining standing Junkers, namely Ana and Junkrat. Junkrat was just flinging explosives at them from a distance, while Ana still refused to engage them with her rifle.

“ _Hana_ ,” Boss whispered. “l can get to the mech. I can bring it over.”

Hana silently nodded. Boss’s skin took on that radioactive green tint again. She melted away into the ground, leaving no trace that she had ever been there. Hana shifted her gaze over to the mech. A minute later a neon green light took shape within it, forming into Boss’ silhouette. She powered up the mech, and before any of the men noticed she engaged the boosters right into the fray.

_Thought she was gonna bring it over to me…_ Hana reluctantly continued to play dead until Boss had attracted the men’s attention. A handful of men who had been watching from the sidelines jumped in and started shooting at the mech. Boss swung one of its heavy arms at them, leveling two men in one swing and taking the third one down with the mech’s shoddy but effective cannons.

Hana waited for Boss to bring the mech over to her, but that didn’t happen. Instead she treated it as her own, fending off anyone who tried to stop her. At one point, however, one of the men lodged some sort of bomb or grenade-like-thing at her. It exploded on contact. Hana sat up, eyes wide – when the smoke cleared Boss was nowhere to be found. The mech looked to have sustained some damage as well. Leaping to her feet, Hana ran over to it. She could probably make a dive into it before anyone could stop her.

Before she reached it, however, the mech’s rusty metal groaned into motion. It lifted its arms and continued firing. Hana stopped in her tracks, tilting her head in utter confusion. _It’s never done that before._ The mech then boosted into the air and landed near her, kicking dust up all around. It lowered to her level and opened its pilot door. “Um, thanks?” Hana crawled inside.

The mech’s control panel had a sickly green glow to it. She reached hesitantly for the joysticks – but before she could grab hold of them, they pushed themselves forward. The mech rushed forward, firing off its burning metal cannons with a fury Hana didn’t know it had in it.

It didn’t take long for the men to realize they were outmatched. Several attempted to retreat, but were dragged back in by Roadhog’s hook, then blasted in the face with his scrap gun. Junkrat blew a few of them skyward with his experimental tire bomb – Hana kept her eyes averted from the carnage. Ana remained on the sidelines. Boss was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually they managed to push through and either kill or chase off every last one of the boat men. In the moment of peace Hana stopped to collect herself. As soon as she did so the mech suddenly lurched forward and spat out a puddle of neon green light. That green light quickly shaped itself into Boss’ familiar form. Hana blinked a few times, glancing down at her control panel. The green glow was gone from it.

Boss coughed a few times, then sat up and rubbed her head. A slow, delirious grin spread across her face. “I have no idea what just happened, but that was awesome.”

“I think you possessed my mech.” Hana pushed the joysticks forward. The mech moved at its normal trudging pace, nothing like how it had been a few minutes before.

“Yeah, I thought so. I wonder if I can do that with other stuff?” Her eyes were wide with excitement.

“Try it later. We’ve got to get to that boat before someone else steals it.”

Boss climbed up on the mech, still smiling like a goof. Hana carried her over to the other Junkers. Extending an arm to Ana, she said, “Are you okay?”

Ana nodded.

“You didn’t, um…” Hana hesitated, not sure how to put it. “…Nevermind. Come on, I’ll carry you.”

“I’ll walk.” Ana strode past her, but paused to say, “Thank you, though.”

Hana could see a mighty ship docked in the far distance. _That must be it!_ It looked absolutely luxurious, unlike any ship Hana had ever seen. It was smooth and elegant, mostly white with some light blue trimmings on the side that looked almost translucent. If nothing else it definitely looked expensive. Oddly, it was flying a flag Hana didn’t recognize – orange, white, and green, with some sort of circular design in the middle of the white stripe. It definitely wasn’t the Australian flag, that was for sure.

She picked up the pace, excited to see the beautiful ship closer up. The seashore wasn’t far, and with no one left to attack them it was an easy path. Would it really be that easy to just take the boat and go? Could they really just leave Australia like it was nothing?

 “Uh…” Boss pointed at something emerging from behind the massive boat. Hana’s eyes widened.

_Maybe not._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to say thanks for all the support you guys! I had no idea how many people were really interested in this fic. Warms my heart :')
> 
> Anyway, this is the end of what is basically Arc 1 of the fic. The second arc will still be uploaded as part of this fanfic, I just may title the next chapter something like "Book 2: [Chapter Name]" or something, to let people know there's going to be a significant shift in the course of the fic starting there.
> 
> As usual, thank you for the comments, kudos, etc.! I'm more than happy to continue the fic now that I know people are interested!


	9. Act II: The Change Cage

To be completely honest, they probably should have anticipated that it was a trap. What they would never have guessed, though, was that it seemed to be backed by the Australian government – these blokes had an arsenal so heavy the Junkers could have hired their own private militia and _still_ not stood a chance. They weren’t even given a chance to explain themselves, let alone try to resist, before they each had a dozen soldiers or whatever tasing and pinning them to the ground.

Turns out the survivors of the Outback were not exactly welcomed representatives of Australia. They were unsightly at best, global reputation destroyers at worst. The ALF and their shenanigans had already taken a bite out of Australia’s international rep. Allowing ruffians like the Junkers to escape and spread to other countries? That was, apparently, unacceptable.

So went the story of Hana Song, professional gamer-turned-Junker, who now sat in a maximum security holding cell by herself, stripped of everything but her crop top and jeans. How stupid they had been, thinking those men wouldn’t expect them to attack and try to steal the boat. Now she had no idea where any of her friends were and no clue had long she’d even been locked in this room. Now she had no idea where any of her friends were and no clue had long she’d even been locked in this sterile white room. She’d expected Boss to pop up in her usual ghostly way, but so far she hadn’t caught one glimpse of the other girl. She hoped they weren’t hurting her in any way.

“Ana?” The walls were soundproof, but she leaned her head back and spoke the name aloud anyway. “Jamie?”

Stifling silence answered her. The absence of any sound at all was driving her crazy. She tapped her nails on the rock-hard cot and exhaled. “Ana was right. This was a bad idea.”

Hours must have passed. It was impossible to tell in a room with no windows, just artificial light keeping her boldly illuminated. It was equally impossible to sleep under those lights, but with nothing else to do Hana attempted to lie down and rest. As she stared up at the blank white ceiling she realized there was a camera in the corner of the room. She pulled a face at it.

She wondered if they were going to kill her. The whole “arrest”, or whatever it was, had been really weird. They’d been cuffed and led onto the boat, where a bunch of strange, out-of-place-looking people in pressed white uniforms all showed up to stare at them. At one point Boss had tried to slip out of the grip of the men escorting them, but several dozen weapons pointed at the other Junkers quickly killed any plans she may have had of escaping.

As she’d expected, sleep proved impossible. Insomnia seemed like it was becoming a close friend of Hana’s. Every time she closed her eyes horrible images played out across the insides of her eyelids – the streets filled with rotting bodies, driving Hana out of her tiny town and out into the desert to get away from it all. The helplessness she’d felt when Ace shot Boss without a second thought. The faces of all the men they’d killed. The fact that her screwed-up brain could remember _their_ faces but not the faces of her own parents. They were all dead, all gone, the men, her parents, everyone, and soon all her friends would probably be dead too. They’d all be dead, and it was all her fault. Ana would never see her daughter again. Hana would never get to tell any of them how much she cared about and appreciated them.

She laid on her back with her eyes squeezed tightly shut. The posture did little to stop the flow of tears that seeped out and leaked down the sides of her face. She laid a bony forearm over her eyes. _I know I’m an adult, but I still feel like a kid. A big, stupid kid._ How was she supposed to deal with all of this?

The door’s electronic lock beeped. Hana sat up and quickly blinked the tears from her eyes. The door swung open, allowing a woman in a sterile white uniform to slip through. She quickly closed the door behind her and smiled cordially at Hana. Hana immediately scanned the woman. Something stuck out at her side beneath her white coat. Some kind of taser or gun, probably.

“Your young female friend is a fascinating specimen.” The woman, whose skin was a pale brown, her black hair short and tipped with blue, sat down in a fold-out chair opposite Hana’s bed. For the first time in over a month Hana became aware of how dirty and foul-smelling she was – this woman was spotlessly groomed in every way. Hana kept her arms at her sides, concealing her tangles of armpit hair and layers of dried-on sweat. “But you’re quite the big shot yourself, aren’t you, Hana Song?”

Hana’s eyes widened. She fought the urge to respond, pulling her lips as tightly as she could over her crocodile teeth. She hated that her mouth could not completely close anymore. Her lower canines poked up from beneath her bottom lip, a look she hoped was threatening but knew was probably just silly-looking.

The woman steepled her fingers and smiled. “We scanned your thumb print. Although for you personally, we probably didn’t have to – a few of my colleagues recognized you straight away. You were so cute in the pictures I saw.” The woman pursed her lips as she looked Hana over. “Look at you now, all speckled with dirt and grime and full of nasty little teeth. You look like a little Gremlin.”

“ _Don’t_ call me that,” Hana growled.

The woman shrugged. “Sorry. What I mean to say is–”

“Where are my friends?” Hana cut the woman off with another growl. “You better not be hurting them. You’ll regret it if you do.”

“Don’t worry, they’re fine.” The woman waved a hand dismissively. “Allow me to explain what’s going on here, Hana. My name is Swarnali. I represent a company that specializes in remodeling areas of the world that have fallen into disrepair. We’re _very_ interested in the Outback as the site of our next development.”

“It’s a nuclear wasteland.”

“We can work with it.” The woman, Swarnali apparently, maintained a calm, unfettered posture, as if the presence of an homicidal nuclear refugee a meter away from her did not faze her in the slightest. “In fact we’re constantly developing new technologies for cleansing the tainted parts of the world – and your friend may help us unlock a hidden potential of nuclear energy we hadn’t even considered. Who knew humans could survive such an ordeal, and come out stronger for it!”

“How do you know about Boss?” Hana asked. “There’s no way she just told you guys all that.”

“We’ve been working with her since we took your group in. At first she was…less than cooperative, but we quickly reached an understanding that working together would do the most to ensure the safety of those we care about.”

“You used us to get information out of her.” Hana’s brain may have been slow-cooked in radiation for almost a month, but even she could read between the lines of that answer.

“Yes, we did. But we’re all the better for it, because now we’ve got information and you’ve got opportunities.”

“I don’t want ‘opportunities’. I want you to let me and my friends go so we can get back to living our lives.”

“Well, see, the thing is…I can’t do that.” Her voice took on a hint of emotion, perhaps sympathy, that almost sounded genuine, but Hana couldn’t be sure. “The Australian government doesn’t want ‘Junkers’ running amok through the rest of the world and, I’m sorry to say, your kind will find no home in our future Utopia.”

Hana drew back, uncertain she was actually hearing what she thought she was hearing. “You’re gonna kick the Junkers off their own home turf??”

“Listen to me, Hana.” Swarnali leaned forward, her fierce brown eyes searching Hana’s filthy face. “You have a large and widespread fanbase that has not stopped posting online about you since your disappearance – seeking proof of your fate, concocting conspiracy theories, making tributes to you.”

Hana had hardly thought of her fandom since everything happened. She wasn’t the biggest internet star in the world, but she had a hell of a dedicated fanbase. The knowledge that they were mourning her struck a heavy chord in her chest. They had no idea what became of her.

“You are _highly_ valuable,” Swarnali continued. “Imagine how incredible it would be if the news came out that beloved teen superstar Hana ‘D.Va’ Song was found and rescued from the ruined Outback by the benevolent Vishkar Corporation?”

“Why would you guys take credit for it? I’m the one who survived eating roadkill and pissing in buckets.”

The woman made a slight face at her crassness. _Good._ “It would be a mutually beneficial arrangement. You become the dirty little girl we rescue from the wasteland who captures the heart of the entire world, then we clean you up and you become a shining example of the good Vishkar can do for the less fortunate of the world. We’ll get rid of those unsightly fangs of yours and mold you some beautiful new teeth, we’ll heal up all those flesh wounds on your hands–”

Hana glanced down at her gloveless hands. Some of the bone patches had healed skin over them, but most were still garishly visible. Even the healed areas were still marred with scarring.

“We’ll treat your hair so it can grow back out to that beautiful length it was before. You’ll be back to the old, adorable, highly marketable D.Va you were. And you’ll become a mascot of our company.”

Hana stared at her for a few long seconds. The D.Va Swarnali was describing didn’t even feel like the same person she currently was. This “Vishkar Corporation” wanted to be represented by a ghost, by someone who no longer existed in any material form. Old D.Va had been in small-time commercials and internet ads, she had been used as a marketing tool before. But that was _her_. And Hana did not consider them the same entity anymore.

After a lengthy pause, Hana asked, “What about my friends?”

“We’ll give them a place to stay where they’ll be accessible to you. We’re very accommodating–”

“Show me they’re all right first.” Hana stared the woman down. “Show me right now.”

Swarnali retrieved a tiny metal disc from her pocket and dropped it to the floor between them. It expanded to project images of four other rooms. Hana leaned in close. She could see the alleged likenesses of her friends, Junkrat pacing his tiny room, Roadhog sitting on the far-too-small bed, Ana curled up on her bed and facing away from what must have been a camera in her room as well. Boss’ room looked different from the others – instead of white the walls were black and lined with glowing blue wires of some sort. Boss herself was sitting against the wall, staring up at the ceiling.

“How do I know this is live?” Hana asked. “Or even real at all?”

The woman reached over and tapped on the hologram depicting Junkrat’s room. He ceased pacing and immediately fixated on the camera. Leaning back a little, Swarnali said, “Say hello to him. You’ll see he’s responding in real time.”

Hana reached over and touched the projection. “Jamie? Can you hear me?”

Junkrat came up as close as he could to the camera.

“Um, if you can hear me, give a thumbs up.”

Junkrat gave an uncertain thumbs up toward the camera.

“So you’re okay? They didn’t hurt you?”

He nodded. His mouth was moving, but Hana couldn’t hear his response.

“Okay. Good. I was worried–”

Swarnali pushed a button on the device, ending the projections. She pocketed the device again.

Hana swallowed. “I’m not the same person I was back then. I don’t think I can do it.”

“Now that simply isn’t true.” Swarnali reached out and cupped Hana’s face in her hands. “You’ve been through a lot, but we’ll help you recover. You’ll be back to your old self in no time – in fact you’ll be happier than ever. What do you say?”

Hana lowered her eyes to the desk. She thought of her friends in their solitary cells all around her. She didn’t know who these people were, but what if they hurt her friends because she wouldn’t cooperate? What if they killed them?

“Fine,” Hana finally responded. She did not raise her eyes to the woman. “I’ll…try it.”

“Excellent!” Swarnali beamed. “I’ll be sure to spread word around the company. You won’t regret this decision, Hana. We’re going to make the Outback a beautiful, livable place again. A utopia.”

Hana didn’t respond again. She allowed Swarnali to lead her out of the cell, listening to her big empty promises of recovery and fame.

 

* * *

 

Lukewarm water trickled down her bare skin as she sat on the floor of the cold, sterile shower. Her flesh had become so sensitive from constant heat and dryness that even the gentle caress of shower water stung dully all over her body. She stared blankly at the white tiled wall in front of her.

She wasn’t global superstar Hana Song anymore. How could they possibly expect her to be?

“Hana?”

The voice came from a speaker high on the wall. Hana glanced up at it with little genuine interest.

“Hana, are you doing all right? You’ve been in there a long time.”

She didn’t know who was talking to her. Everyone here seemed to know her name.

After a few minutes of no response on Hana’s part, suddenly the fogged glass panel that served as a shower entrance slid open. Hana made no move to shift from her cross-legged position on the floor as a young woman in a white coat stepped in and pushed the button for the shower water to stop.

“You should have told us you needed assistance.”

“I don’t.”

The woman slid the glass shut and reached for the bottles of shampoo and conditioner shelved on the far wall. She then knelt on the wet floor behind Hana. Hana heard some of the shampoo being squirted out into the woman’s palm. A moment later a pair of unfamiliar hands were kneaded into Hana’s hair, scrubbing through a month’s worth of grease and dirt.

“This would be a lot easier if you did it yourself.” The woman tugged roughly through a mat in Hana’s hair. Hana hissed.

The woman was in there with her for what felt like forever, first combing through, shampooing and conditioning her hair, then scrubbing at her with a soapy washcloth, then taking a small pair of scissors and a razor to her arm and leg hair. As the clumps of hair fell into the floor drain Hana found herself wondering why she ever bothered with such pointless beauty routines. Why were these people so obsessed with it? What did it really matter?

An eternity later Hana was apparently washed to satisfaction. The woman brought her a bright white bathrobe that had “Vishkar Corp” monogrammed on it and some lounge clothes. Hana went limp like a ragdoll while the woman forcefully dressed her. She was then led back into her cell.

In the time she had been gone apparently someone had niced the place up a little bit, for she now had a fluffier pillow, a mirror and a holovid mounted high on the far wall. Atop the new pillow sat a remote control, presumably for the holovid. _Who the hell feels like watching TV._ She cast the remote aside as she flopped down on her bed and resumed her ceiling stare session from earlier.

It felt weird being clean. Her skin felt so exposed, and her arms and legs were cold without the downy hair that once covered them.

_I wonder how the others are doing._

They never should have killed those men. This was probably some kind of karmic punishment from the universe for doing that. Now Hana was to be paraded around like a show animal by some company looking to improve their public image. Once again she was going to be all about appearance, all technical and survival skills she’d picked up thrown by the wayside. And who knew what was to become of her friends.

After an hour or so of staring at the ceiling and worrying about her friends and future Hana finally resigned herself to flipping through the holovid channels. They were largely unfamiliar to her – they were all Indian, and virtually all in Hindi. Were they in India or something? She thought she had heard someone mention teleportation when they were rounding the Junkers up at the Australian shoreline, but had assumed she was hearing them wrong or that it meant something else in context. But who knew what this weirdo corporation was capable of?

At one point she realized there was a button on the remote for alternate language subtitles. Most of the shows weren’t translated, but the major news channels had English subtitles. One of them even had Korean subtitles, which surprised her. After a moment’s deliberation she switched over to the Korean subs. It had been so long since she’d been able to read anything in her native language.

Not much seemed to have changed across the rest of the world. While the Outback was living out its own mini-apocalypse, the world at large was going through the same stuff as always – celebrity scandals, political junk, all the usual news. Hana could only watch it for a few minutes before she felt sick. So many people, pretty much everyone she knew and loved, died as a result of the omnium explosion. She had watched her parents die from radiation poisoning. And the rest of the world didn’t seem to even notice what had happened there. It probably made the news for a few days at best, before people stopped caring or got bored with hearing about it.

As she flipped idly through the rest of the channels Hana eventually stumbled on one that was in English. It was apparently a looping ad for Vishkar Corporation.

 _Our mission here at Vishkar is to make the world a better place for everyone._ A cheerful woman narrated over video clips of people in a run-down neighborhood, which then changed to clips of a futuristic-looking city made of what looked like some sort of illuminated glass. _Using our patented Hard Light Technology, our Architechs design cities from the ground up._ It cut to a shot of several men and women mapping out a three-dimensional translucent blueprint. _We’ve served millions across the globe, ensuring families in need are able to live safe, harmonious lives._ The scene changed to a family smiling and posing in front of a perfectly rectangular house that exactly resembled the houses beside and behind it. _Vishkar. Building a better world!_

Hana blew a raspberry at the screen.

After sitting through the Vishkar ad she lost any bit of desire to watch the holovid. Instead she decided to investigate the room for the umpteenth time, checking for any weak spots in the walls or door. She ran her hands over the surfaces of each. _There’s gotta be some way out of here._ _There has to be something I can chip away at or break through._

The walls felt false. Not usually a word she would use describe something like a wall, but that was all she could think as she inspected them. They felt like they had been created only very recently, and they were just _too_ perfect. They felt like a 3-D print. _Maybe those ‘Architechs’ made these cells, too._ Regardless, they were clearly very sturdy, and she could not find a weak spot anywhere on them. In frustration she started pounding her fists on the flawless walls. “I want out of here!” she cried, despite knowing it was a pointless plea.

Almost as if in response to her outcry, Hana began to hear a weird, faint noise from somewhere in the room. It wasn’t particularly assaulting on the ears, but for some reason it cut right through her thoughts. She winced and covered her ears. When she uncovered them a moment later the sound had, thankfully, stopped, but some other faint sound tickled her brain instead. It was much less jarring – in fact, it was almost pleasant. It seemed to be coming from the camera on the ceiling, or something near it, but Hana hadn’t investigated a full minute before she was overcome with a sudden wave of exhaustion.

She hadn’t slept much last night, but she had felt fine until that moment. Something was whispering to her brain. All of a sudden she barely had the energy to drag herself into bed. Upon hitting the pillow she knocked out into a deeper sleep than she’d experienced in weeks.


	10. Child Queen

“Hana?”

It took every bit of strength for Hana to yank her eyelids apart and focus on the person standing over her. It was Swarnali, the first woman she had met at Vishkar.

“Is everything all right?” Swarnali asked. “You were out cold.”

Hana scratched her head. She couldn’t remember when she had fallen asleep, or why. All she could recall was a sudden feeling of extreme tiredness, like she could sleep for days and not be sated.

“How long was I asleep?” Her voice cracked midsentence, her body apparently still too groggy for perfect function.

“A couple of hours. We figured you needed your rest, so we didn’t disturb you.”

“…You just disturbed me.”

“Well, okay, I’m disturbing you now.” The woman chuckled a little. “But that’s only because we want to introduce you to some more of our team here. We think it’ll help you adjust a little better.”

“You’re okay with setting a wild animal loose in your company?”

“Oh, Hana, you’re not a wild animal!” Swarnali patted her lightly on the arm. “In fact, I’d really like you to meet one of our Architechs in particular. When we first discovered her she was a lot like you, filthy and degenerate–er, no offense,” she added at the sight of Hana rolling her eyes. “Anyway, we took her in, cleaned her up, and now she’s one of our brightest stars here at Vishkar. I think we could see a similar success story in you.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up, lady.” Hana’s voice was flat with complete apathy.

“Well we’ll find out, won’t we?”

Too groggy to much resist, Hana once again let herself be led out of the cell and through several security gates to Vishkar’s main building. Swarnali moved quickly, preventing Hana from memorizing any paths or exits (as if her deep-fried brain could remember something like that, anyway). It didn’t take long for them to be knocking at a tall, ominous door. Swarnali didn’t wait to be let in.

The moment Hana stepped through the doorway she felt a massive swell of energy around her, like nothing she had ever felt before. The room was dark, with high ceilings and tall windows all drawn shut. The only light source came from a table at the center of the room. The table was positively radiant, its surface covered by a glowing, three-dimensional map. It was just like the one Hana had seen in the Vishkar ad.

In front of the table a woman had her back to Swarnali and Hana. Her arms swooped out in a grandiose gesture, and the map shifted in front of her, altering the size and shape of several of the miniature light structures. Hana noticed that she looked quite different from the Vishkar employees she’d seen thus far. Instead of a lab coat this “Architech” wore a short white dress, and her hair was pulled back into a perfectly neat bun. She seemed to be wearing something on her face, like a visor of some kind.

“Satya?” Swarnali took a few steps toward the Architech. The other woman did not respond, and instead merely kept tinkering with the size of one light-building in particular. “Satya.” Swarnali’s tone was less cordial the second time, and she came to stand directly beside the other woman.

The Architech finally turned their way. Her chin was high, her expression one of mild annoyance. “I am trying to concentrate,” was all she said.

“And we appreciate that. But I have a special task for you today.”

The Architech, Satya, raised an eyebrow. “There were no special tasks on my schedule–”

“It was a last minute decision.” Swarnali stepped aside and placed her hands on Hana’s shoulders, marching her forward a step. Satya looked her over with thinly-veiled disgust.

“One of the refugees?”

“I want you to look after her for a short while today. Talk to her, give a good impression of who we are here at Vishkar.” Swarnali resumed her business-cheerful tone, but it was strained.

Satya’s eyes widened. “Me? But I am trying to solve these discrepancies in the Outback map.”

“Just pretend she’s another Architech. A new one, who doesn’t know how things work around here. As you were not so long ago.”

Satya furrowed her brows and turned away. “I do not know why you would select me for this, but very well. I will not disrupt your plan.”

“Thank you, Satya. I knew you’d come around.” Swarnali gave Hana one last pat on the back. Before heading out of the room, though, she was sure to add, “And Hana? Don’t try anything. We have eyes everywhere.” Hana’s gaze followed her as she pointed to nearly a dozen cameras and screens mounted throughout the room.

The slam of the massive doors ushered in a long, painful silence. Hana stood uncertainly at Satya’s side, watching her work. Her gestures were amazingly fluid, almost like dancing. The presence of a stranger did not seem to shake her concentration in the least. Occasionally she would murmur something to herself and Hana would perk up, thinking she was being spoken to. Inevitably, however, the Architech would make a small affirmative noise and then change something drastically on the map. She continued to ignore the girl at her side.

After many long minutes of silence, Hana finally couldn’t take it anymore. “So, I’m Hana,” she said.

“Satya.” The other woman did not even glance Hana’s way when she responded.

“How do you do that?”

Her vagueness forced Satya to look her way. “Do what?”

Hana waved her arms around like an inflatable noodle at a car dealership.

Satya clicked her tongue and resumed her work. “I’ve trained to be an Architech since I was a child.”

“Swarnali says Vishkar ‘rescued’ you like they ‘rescued’ me.”

That gave Satya pause. The light map flickered before them. “She told you that?”

Hana nodded.

“Well, she is telling the truth.” Satya started to walk around the table to the other side of the map. Hana followed her. “Vishkar rescued me from a life of chaos and disorder. A life of extreme poverty. They took me in, fed me, clothed me, and most importantly, taught me.”

“How old were you?”

“Very young. Just old enough to remember how terrible things were before Vishkar saved me.”

“Too young to make your own choice?”

Satya nodded. “I was but a child. I could not possibly have made an educated decision for myself. Which is why I am thankful every day that Vishkar made it for me.”

“Are your parents alive? Or were you an orphan?”

“I do not feel comfortable answering that.”

“Okay. Sorry.”

Satya appeared to be working on the other side of the map, but after a few seconds of observation Hana realized she was just doing and undoing the same few changes over and over again.

“I don’t want to be here,” Hana said.

“I did not want to be here when I first arrived, either.” Satya’s response seemed practiced, as though she’d said it, or perhaps thought it, several times before. “Sometimes the human mind does not know what is truly best for it until it can gaze back in retrospect.”

“So how long have you been here?”

Satya continued her pointless reshaping of the Outback map. “Twenty years.”

“Twenty years??” Hana gaped. “Wow. I thought you were only, like, my age.”

“I am twenty-eight.” The map stopped transforming. “Ugh, I cannot concentrate with you here. Why was I chosen to look after you?”

Hana shrugged. The woman pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. As she did so the light from the map reflected off her arm, which Hana only then realized was made of metal instead of flesh. “Do you work with explosives?” she asked. Junkrat was the only other person she’d met with prosthetic limbs, and that was why he had lost his arm and leg.

“Explosives?” Satya wrinkled her nose. “Absolutely not. Their results are far too unpredictable.”

“Oh. Well my friend Junkrat lost an arm and a leg working with explosives, so I thought maybe…you…” She gestured subtly to Satya’s robotic limb.

It seemed to take the Architech a moment to make the connection, but eventually she shook her head. “Oh, no. This was a voluntary upgrade.”

Hana stared blankly at her.

“I consented to the procedure,” she clarified.

Hana blinked slowly.

“I agreed to have it removed,” Satya finally said, a bit exasperated.

“Oh.” Hana made a face. “Why the heck would you agree to have your arm chopped off?”

“Human flesh is inherently flawed. It’s no fault of our own – nature itself is imperfect. But we may strive to correct those errors.” She held her white metallic hand out to Hana and waggled her artificial fingers. “It enhances my light manipulation abilities and allows me to hold perfectly steady while crafting small details. Human flesh cannot match it.”

“Why didn’t you cut both your arms off, then?”

Satya hesitated. “I…most likely will. In time.”

“Can you feel anything with the metal one?”

Satya glanced down at it for a moment. “No.”

Hana pursed her lips. “That must suck.”

“It holds no relevance to me. Pain is meaningless on a limb that can simply be rebuilt.”

“There’s feelings other than pain…” Hana murmured.

“I know what you are trying to do, refugee.” Satya straightened her spine and crossed to the other side of the room, where she opened one curtain just the slightest bit and peered out the window. With a wave of her metal hand a stool manifested just behind her, and she sat down upon it with the utmost elegance, crossing one leg over the other and retaining a perfectly straight posture as she gazed at the minimal landscape outside. “I am not stupid. Many have tried to steer me from my path in the past. But I hold a true understanding of Vishkar and what we do here. I know that everything we do is for the greater good of humanity. Someday the world will realize this, and will thank us for being the champions of transformation they did not realize they required.”

Hana was no psychologist by any means, but she could get a pretty clear picture from both her own situation and that of this Architech of what went on here at Vishkar Corp. The company took in young people who were poor and desperate and twisted them into thinking they were some sort of unsung superheroes that the world sorely needed. At least, that was clearly the case with this Satya lady. They were trying to do it with Hana herself, too – turning her into some larger-than-life icon of the company in exchange for letting herself be groomed into whatever they wanted her to be.

This Satya woman could not be trusted, she decided. Her mind had long since been drowned in Vishkar ideology, ingrained in her since she was a child of just eight years old. Maybe if Hana had caught her twenty years ago she could have been converted into an ally, but she would likely not be of any help to Hana now.

“You should at least give us a chance here,” Satya added, her voice quieter than before. “We improve people’s lives. You will be happier here than slowly dying in a nuclear wasteland.”

“You’re probably right.”

Satya shifted her gaze over to Hana, who had taken a seat on the floor beside her stool. “You’re being genuine?”

Hana shrugged. “I _was_ getting pretty tired of eating radioactive canned fruit for every meal.”

Satya’s expression visibly brightened. “Vishkar has amazing chefs who cook for the company. I could take you there now, if you are hungry.”

“Oh yeah, I’m starving! It would be really cool if you took me there. And maybe you could even show me around the place afterward?” Hana hoped her sudden change in demeanor wouldn’t be sniffed out as fake by the other woman.

Thankfully Satya’s people skills didn’t seem to be her sharpest asset. “Of course.” She hopped up off her chair. It disappeared within moments. “You shall see just how much better off you and your friends will be here.”

Hana stuck close to the Architech as she led them out of the room. This time she tried her hardest to remember where everything was. If she could even recall a few doors or hallways, it could help her make her inevitable escape somewhere down the line.

* * *

 

Vishkar’s dining area was more like a restaurant, especially compared to the prison cafeteria. It didn’t have waiters or anything, though. Satya led her up to a small counter with numerous chefs working behind it and a man in a suit relaying orders to them. Several holovid screens served as a menu above the counter, displaying the specials that day along with all of the usual dishes they apparently served. They were all listed in Hindi, but thankfully had small English translations underneath.

Satya was quite patient with Hana, giving her several minutes to look over the menu before asking her if she needed assistance in deciding. “What do you like here?” Hana asked her.

After a moment’s consideration, Satya turned to the man in the suit and said something in Hindi. He nodded, then went to the back, presumably to relay the order to the chefs.

Satya led her then over to a table, which she inspected carefully before apparently deciding it was acceptable and taking a seat at it. Hana sat down opposite her. After an agonizingly long and awkward silence the man in the suit showed up at their table with two dishes of some spicy-smelling rice dish with other things mixed in. “Here you go, Satya.” The man cast a glance over at Hana, but did not say anything to her.

“Thank you.” A spoon materialized in Satya’s hand. She set it down on the edge of the dish, then created one for Hana. Hana marveled at it for a long moment. It felt so solid and real, even though apparently it was just made out of “hardened light”.

“This is called shrimp biryani. It is only mildly spicy – I am unfamiliar with your tolerance level for Indian spices.”

“Korean food can be kinda spicy, but I don’t think it’s as spicy as Indian food. I guess we’ll see.” Hana scooped out a small spoonful of rice with some cashews mixed in and took a bite. “Oh wow, yeah it’s definitely spicier than most Korean food I’ve had.” She chewed it over, letting the flavor roll through her mouth. “Hm. It’s good, though.”

Satya smiled a little. “You like it, then?”

Hana nodded, already delving into another bite. The second mouthful had a bit of shrimp as well. Growing up in a seaside city Hana had been raised on a ton of seafood. It was sort of a creature comfort to her now.

Satya’s nibbles of food were so delicate and calculated. She made sure to dab gingerly at her lips with a napkin after nearly every bite. Hana, on the other hand, quickly moved from an uncertain pace to gobbling her meal down like a starved dog. At one point she looked up to find Satya staring disdainfully at her. Hana shrugged. “What? It’s good.”

“No, no…by all means, go ahead…” Satya continued to pick delicately at her own meal. “I am glad you’re enjoying it.”

It took hardly any time at all for Hana to finish the biryani. She dropped her spoon down on the plate, leaned back in the chair and burped loudly. Satya’s look of disdain returned. “Wow, even my burp tasted spicy. At least you guys have real bathrooms here…”

Satya held a hand up, silencing her. “Please, I understand your point.”

“Sorry. I’ve been living with a bunch of scumbags.” Hana stretched idly. “It was kinda nice, though. No stupid social stigmas or anything.”

“At the expense of your entire society.”

Hana shrugged again.

Satya quietly finished her meal while Hana looked around and watched the goings-on around them. Other Vishkar employees that arrived all seemed to cluster in groups. A few acknowledged Satya, but none came and spoke to her. If this were the Junker prison Hana would have been extremely upset by everyone ignoring her. It didn’t seem to bother Satya at all. Maybe it was a common occurrence.

When finally she was finished eating Satya asked Hana, “Is there anything else you would like to do?”

“I’d like to see my friends. Would they let me visit them if you were there?”

Satya paused. “I am…not sure. I could ask.”

“That’d be cool.”

After meticulously cleaning up their table (seriously, didn’t they have help for that?), Satya led Hana to a super modern-looking glass elevator. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Satya didn’t even have to look at the button panel to push the correct button and open the elevator doors. Hana supposed after twenty years even she would probably have most everything memorized, too.

The floor of the elevator was an illuminated mirror surface. Hana glanced down at herself, then made a face in the reflective surface. Satya ignored her.

Apparently they were headed for the twelfth floor. Hana stared out at the glass for the first few stories, marveling at just how massive this corporate building apparently was. Then she looked back to Satya, who was glancing about idly with her arms folded. “So you’re not scared of being alone with me in a secluded place like an elevator?” Hana asked her. “I mean, I’m kinda dangerous.”

Satya did not even grant her a look. “I could incapacitate you in a moment.”

Hana stared at her for a second. Then she feigned lunging at the other woman. Before she could even finish the motion a deafening buzzing sound hit her – followed a millisecond later by something burning hot and painful striking her on her rear end. “Aghh!” She twisted around to see some sort of turret-like thing fixating on her with a blue laser beam. “Ow, ow!” She sank to the floor, trying to escape the nasty pain beam. “Okay, you proved your point! I’m sorry!”

With a wave of Satya’s hands the turret disintegrated. Hana rubbed her back. “Jeez, lady.”

Satya shrugged. “You threatened me.”

“Well I won’t be doing _that_ again.”

It was a long, awkward ride to the twelfth floor after that. Thankfully the elevator moved quickly, and nobody else seemed to be headed up that high. When the doors opened to floor twelve they stepped out into a long white hall of identical doors. Satya strode down the hall, Hana in tow, until she reached their apparent destination. There she turned and cast a patronizing look down at Hana. “Do not move from this spot. I will be right back.” She waved a hand, forming a wall of light around Hana. Upon tapping its surface Hana discovered it was completely solid, like being in some sort of giant test tube. With a sigh she sat down on the floor and rested her chin on her palm. Satya opened one of the doors and disappeared inside.

She was gone for what felt like forever. Hana leaned against the light wall, staring up at the ceiling. _I really, really hope they let me see them._ She missed everyone. She couldn’t help wondering how Ana felt about all this, since she had advised Hana against the boat plan to begin with. Ana wouldn’t even be there at the moment if not for Hana insisting they’d be fine. Hell, Boss wouldn’t have been trapped there either. It was all Hana’s fault they were in this mess. Well, Junkrat’s too, since he was the one who convinced Hana to go along with it in the first place. The two of them were apparently just full of terrible ideas.

As she sat in silence within her light prison Hana began to pick up voices from another room. At first they were quite muffled, but they must have been moving closer to her, for they gradually became louder and clearer.

“We _can’t_ have another breach like that. Our image is just barely recovering from the last one.”

“Well something was trying to get in last night. I got an alert that someone tried to access our system records using some really advanced decryption software. I’m surprised they didn’t get through–”

“Maybe the upgraded defense system kept them out.”

“I don’t know. Hopefully.”

 _Sounds like Vishkar has a problem with hackers._ Hana could kind of sympathize. Hackers were the worst.

Satya emerged from the office a few minutes later with a neutral expression on her face. She freed Hana from her tube. “So…?” Hana clenched her fists, eager for an answer.

“They did not want to allow it at first. But ultimately they decided that you may visit with one of your friends, supervised by a Vishkar team.”

“Just one?” Hana’s shoulders drooped. “Well I guess that’s better than nothing. What made them change their minds and allow that?”

Satya strode down the hall, not looking back at Hana. “I negotiated on your behalf.”

“What? You did?” Hana hurried after her. “Um, thank you.”

Satya paused for a brief moment. She straightened her spine and lifted her chin, a pose that seemed to attempt invulnerability. Without glancing back at Hana she said in a faint voice, “Loneliness is a terrible affliction.”

Hana hesitated. “…Yeah. It is.”

Their trip back downstairs was wordless after that. The entire time Hana could only think of how determined she was – an ever-growing determination, at that – not to remain with this corporation. They kidnapped and ruined people. Hana wouldn’t let herself be ruined by them. She wouldn’t let her friends be ruined by them. They were all going to be free eventually, and it would start by making sure at least one of her trusted friends was alive and well.

* * *

 

Eight Vishkar staff surrounding them at a barren office table didn’t make for much of a social outing, but even just the presence of a friendly face made Hana feel worlds better.

“I’m sorry I got us into this,” Hana whispered, her eyes low. “I should have listened to you.”

Ana reached across the table and laid her hand gingerly atop one of Hana’s. “Don’t blame yourself, child. You didn’t know.”

It was strange seeing the old woman without all her Wastelander gear. Stripped down to a white tank top and light blue hospital-esque pants, she looked a lot less like some post-apocalyptic badass and a lot more like just a tired and weathered old woman. The skin of her hands was wrinkled and hung off her bones. Her pure white hair was long and braided down her back, neither of which Hana had expected since it had always been covered by a hood. Her bare arms had wrinkles and age spots as much as her hands, but they were surprisingly muscular. She was an odd mix of appearance, somewhere in the middle of docile old lady and grizzled war vet. Made sense, considering that’s apparently what she was.

The watchful eyes of the Vishkar employees around them made Hana a little nervous. She quickly reminded herself that she had the upper hand here – they wanted her. She was valuable to them. She had some wiggle room where they were concerned.

“Are you okay here?” she asked Ana. “They haven’t hurt you or anything, right?”

Ana shook her head. “I am fine. Don’t worry for me.”

Hana looked around at the people observing them. They were clearly trying to remove themselves from the scene as much as possible. The only person who made occasional eye contact with her was Satya, seated at the far end of the table. The labcoats had obviously placed her between themselves as a means of defense if necessary. She was like their guard dog.

“This place is sick,” Hana blurted. Several of the employees reacted with raised eyebrows and quick fingers, typing up something. Probably making note that she wasn’t ready to throw herself at their feet yet. Satya looked taken aback. “Go ahead, write it down. This place, what you do to people, to kids, it’s sick. Whether I work with you or not I’m still gonna feel that way. Forever.”

Ana seemed as surprised as the Vishkar labcoats, but in a far less negative way. She nodded in subtle agreement.

They were supposed to be allotted a full twenty minute time block to visit with each other, but there was no way twenty minutes had passed when the Vishkars started trying to wrap up Hana and Ana’s reunion. Hana suspected it was because of her comment about Vishkar being sick. Oh well. It _was_.

As they led Ana away Hana felt that sting at her eyes again. _Don’t cry, stupid. They’ll use it against you._ Regardless, it was hard not to feel heavy-hearted at the knowledge that her friends were all prisoners here, seemingly given far less care and attention than Hana herself. She bit her lip as it quivered, desperate not to show any vulnerability.

Satya came to stand beside her. She watched Hana for several seconds. Hana refused to turn to her, though she could see the woman looking her over out the corner of her eye. “You shouldn’t cry,” Satya eventually said. Her tone was not sympathetic, instead rather distant, as if purposely erecting a barrier between herself and Hana’s perceived weakness. “Crying solves nothing. It is purposeless. A waste of energy.”

Hana sniffed. “Thanks. I feel so much better now.”

“Oh. You’re welcome.” Satya brightened a little. “Usually I am not the best at consoling people, so I’m glad I could help.”

“It was sarcasm, lady.”

“Oh.” Satya ran a hand through her hair and turned slightly away from Hana. “Of course.”

“I’m going to my room.” Hana walked out on her. As usual, she was pursued by a labcoat who had to make sure she was actually returning to her room and not running away or something. Not like there was any chance of that. Between the ridiculous security and the fact that they had all of her friends here, Vishkar surely knew she wasn’t going anywhere.


	11. The Wake

Hana typically considered herself a pretty stubborn person. Once she set her mind to something it took a monumental effort to knock her off course.

As it turned out a war of attrition, a slow but steady assault on her willpower, could apparently add up to a monumental effort.

Days of imprisonment at Vishkar slowly melted into weeks. Every day the routine was exactly the same – she was woken by a weird sound in her room, signifying it was time for her to trudge to the showers and half-heartedly bathe. Breakfast at first was delivered to her room, where she remained locked inside, but as time went on she was allowed out to the kitchen for breakfast with the employees. After breakfast she’d be taken by a labcoat for some stupid thing, usually a “fun little activity” that was just thinly-veiled positive reinforcement of the company, like showing her how certain parts of the facility worked and how those parts ultimately served to “help” their clients. For lunch she would usually eat alone in her room, then spend the afternoon with her thoughts. At dinner, the most crowded time in the dining area, she usually ate alone, but would sometimes pair up with Satya and eat with her. Satya seemed pleased with Hana’s progress, which only depressed Hana further. At one point Satya complimented her hair, which was starting to grow back out. Hana responded by snapping at her. They didn’t dine together for several days after that.

 _At least you’re safe here,_ the employees always told her when Hana tried to voice a complaint. _Safe, clean, well-fed – what more can a human ask for?_ At first Hana would rise to the bait and answer them. _Freedom_ , she’d say – to which they would respond with, _The ‘freedom’ you’re seeking destroyed your home and killed nearly everyone you know._ It was a stupid response she could easily combat, but when the answer was the same every single time it began to feel like arguing with a machine instead than a human being. So Hana stopped answering. Eventually she stopped even thinking the answer in her head. She would simply shrug or nod and say “Yeah. I guess so.” It was exactly what they wanted to hear.

Her brain felt constantly fuzzy, and she was pretty sure it had something to do with the weird sounds that looped in her room. She supposed they also could have been lacing her food with something, but there were several nights where she and Satya split a single dish, so that most likely wasn’t the case.

The scariest thoughts were the ones she found herself struggling to disprove. Every so often Satya or one of the other Vishkar workers would ask her, _Why do you want to return to the Junker lifestyle so badly?_ To that, she had no real answer. Well, she _did_ have an answer – she felt that, after all she had been through, no civilized part of the world would ever accept her again. But Vishkar seemed willing to try. So was that really true? Maybe she was just being her usual stubborn self and clinging to a false assumption.

“My brain hurts.” Hana massaged her temples. She and Satya were working on the Outback map together – well, working together wasn’t quite the right phrase. It was essentially Satya doing the work while Hana watched and gave occasional commentary. Maybe it was from staring at the blinding light of the map for so long, or from all those weird noises night after night, or maybe the fact that her brain was deep-fried from nuclear radiation, but she found herself developing frequent headaches of late.

“Perhaps you should rest?” Satya was not the best at dispensing advice, far from it honestly, but she always tried. “Or would you like me to see if I can get you some pain medicine?”

“I don’t know. I’m probably fine.” She rubbed her eyes and looked away from the map. “Are they ever gonna have a doctor check me out here? Seems like something they should have done already.”

“I am not sure.”

“Jeez, for someone who’s been here twenty years you don’t seem to know very much about what the company’s doing.”

Satya’s lip curled in annoyance, though her response to Hana’s bluntness had softened over the weeks they’d spent together. “One limb of the body does not need to know what the entire body is doing at all times. I simply play my part.”

“Yeah, yeah. So when am I gonna get some proper medical attention?”

“Would you like me to ask?”

“I mean, it’s not a big deal. I could just drop dead at any second.”

Satya’s eyes widened. “I had no idea it was so urgent. I’ll go ask for you.”

She left the map up when she walked away. Hana leaned over and studied it. They had some grand plans for the wretched Outback. Satya seemed to think it could be some sort of gorgeous utopia. Hana knew better. The place was wrecked.

Something on the map jumped out at her – an area she recognized, despite the ultra-gentrification on the Vishkar map. _My street!_ She’d recognize McClure Street anywhere. Her house was the second one from the end of the road, a cute little…perfect rectangle of light on a street full of identical light blue rectangles. Her father had just finished adding on a little deck to their backyard a few months before everything happened. The house hadn’t been touched by the explosion and was still standing perfectly when Hana had been forced to flee the radioactive smog in the air. Even though it was fine, and had been her parents’ final contribution to the world, Vishkar was still planning to destroy it and build one of their ugly little cube-houses in its place.

Hana bit her lip. _I’ll never see my house again._

Maybe if she was still stuck here when Vishkar started their rebuilding they’d allow her to at least take some things from the house and keep them. _Ugh, you sound so whipped._ She should be fighting them on destroying her home. She should be looking for a way out of here while she was left alone. Instead here she was, patiently waiting for an employee of her captor to return and let her know whether or not she was to be allowed basic medical attention. She’d become a lazy, spoiled house pet eating out of the hand of its owner, while her friends were probably still caged up like wild animals. _What’s wrong with me?_

“Hana?”

Hana startled a little as Satya appeared at her side.

“Swarnali informed me you’ve been under medical supervision the entire time you’ve been here.”

“What? Really?”

Satya nodded. “I would guess your room has been outfitted with monitors to keep track of your health status.”

“Is that what makes all those weird noises all night?”

Satya blinked. “What?”

“All those weird sounds I hear at night.”

“Hm. Possibly?” Satya studied her with concern in her eyes. “Does it disturb you?”

“I’ve just kind of learned to sleep through it.”

“Well I suppose that’s good…” She ran a hand through her hair.

They avoided looking at each other after that. Hana stared down at the map, thinking of how different her home, the Junkers’ home, was going to look once they were through with it. Everything her parents knew and worked for would be buried beneath a sea of hard light.

There was nothing she could do about it.

* * *

 

“What’s the matter, Hana?” Swarnali asked as she was escorting her back to her room that night. Hana did not provide an answer. Instead she just kept walking. “Hana, if something’s wrong you can tell us. We’re here to help you.”

“I want to go home,” Hana muttered.

Swarnali did not immediately answer. She must have been cooking up some sort of corporate doublespeak answer, Hana figured. And she was right. “Once Vishkar cleans up the Outback you’ll be able to travel there. It’ll be beautiful, and a lot safer than it is now.”

“It won’t be my home.”

“Well, once the rebuilding is complete we could look into securing one of the properties for you. I’m sure you’d be given preferential treatment for housing.”

“It won’t be _my house_. It won’t be the house I grew up in. The house my parents bought and fixed up.” Hana glared down at the floor. “I don’t want to live in a house made of ‘hard light’. I want my old house, with the mismatched walls and rattling windows and squeaky floor boards. With the ugly deck my Dad built.”

“We can simulate all those things. It wouldn’t be difficult to recreate–”

“Ugh!” Hana clenched her teeth. “Forget it. You’re purposely not getting it. Just leave me alone. I’m going to bed.”

She let herself into her room and slammed the door behind her. A few seconds later she heard the door’s electronic lock activate. “Yeah, goodnight,” she spat.

She spent the next few hours curled up on her bed, hugging her knees. It seemed she was out of tears to cry – she didn’t shed a single one while huddled there feeling miserable. _I miss everyone so much…_ She hadn’t been allowed any more visits after that single meeting with Ana. Every day she felt more and more isolated from them – hell, she didn’t even know beyond Vishkar’s word that they were still alive. She knew it was all intentional. Vishkar wanted her to move on from the Junkers. They purposely surrounded her solely with Vishkar staff, some of whom made sad attempts to act like friends to her. It was all so god damn fake. The only person she felt genuinely cared for her was, ironically, the one who never had any qualms about voicing her unwillingness to associate with Hana when she had other things to do. But Satya was eyeballs-deep in Vishkar’s bullshit just like the rest of them. Maybe even more than the rest of them.

 _They’d probably treat the Junkers better if I cooperated more._ That thought sat in the pit of her stomach every minute of every day she spent at Vishkar. Her stubborn protests were probably just making everything worse in the long run. Maybe she _should_ just give in and let them use her as their stupid mascot or whatever. It wouldn’t really be the end of the world, would it?

She sat mulling it over for the better part of the night. Maybe she was being selfish. Maybe she should be working with Vishkar and using her status with them to get the Junkers freed. _Ugh, why does it all have to fall on me?_ She gnashed her teeth in frustration. _Maybe I should just…_

A slight change in the room pricked her ears. Something had been making a noise, a noise she had apparently been tuning right out, and the noise just stopped. Uncurling herself in the bed, Hana climbed off of it and shuffled over to the security camera in the corner. The noise had been coming from that area. It was quiet now. Something looked different about it, too – it usually had a tiny red light near the top of it, she recalled. Now it didn’t.

Piercing static made her heart jump. She whipped around to find the holovid powered on. _What the heck?_

The screen was black save for a glowing purple emblem in the middle – it looked like some sort of skull. Hana backed away from it.

Some text started to appear on the screen, as if it were being typed up in real time. Reluctantly Hana stepped a little closer to read it.

_Do you want to see?_

“See what…?” Hana looked over at the camera on the wall again. What was going on here?

As if the holovid could hear her, more text appeared. _The truth about what Vishkar does._

“Who are you?”

_I’m a friend._

“A friend of Vishkar?”

_LOL. Hardly._

As stupid as it was, the splash of text speak made Hana feel oddly more at ease. She’d become so accustomed to Vishkar’s painfully formal vernacular that any momentary deviance from it was refreshing. “Are you one of the hackers Vishkar’s been having problems with?”

_Oh? They been talking about me?_

“I just heard them mention a hacker trying to get into their system.”

_Lmao, “trying”. So anyways Miss Song, you want some help getting out of there?_

Hana stared at the screen, nonplussed. “I’m supposed to just trust some shifty no-face hacker who broke into my holovid?” She’d never had a good experience with a hacker. Their stupid aimbots and junk ruined all of Hana’s favorite online games.

 _Well, you don’t have to trust me. Honestly I’m just looking to take Vishkar down. You’re kind of a means to an end._ The text sat on the screen for a few seconds, the hacker seemingly finished with their message. Then they added, _Let me show you something._

The text faded away. The screen now showed something else entirely – it looked like security footage. The room in the video was dark, preventing Hana from seeing much. All she could make out was a softly glowing tank of some sort.

Then the lights in the mysterious room flicked on, and Hana gasped.

* * *

 

“Vanessa? Vanessa Calgori?”

Boss glared up at the man in the white coat staring down at her. Whatever crazy sort of material they were using to hold her in this cage…tank…thing, when she tried to phase through it it disrupted her energy and knocked her back, leaving her with a sensation akin to being shocked. Some kind of sci-fi shit.

The man sat down on a stool in whatever weird room Boss was being kept in and leaned down to her level. She continued to stare him down, but apparently he wasn’t going to be shaken by that. “You’re a fascinating specimen,” he said, his tone implying it was supposed to be some sort of compliment. “Tell me your story.”

“I ain’t telling you shit.” Boss folded her arms and crossed one leg over the other. Let this asshole try her. She’d been dealing with _Junkers_ for the past month. After them nothing could faze her.

The man’s friendly face fell for just a moment before he quickly re-plastered a smile on. “Okay, fair enough. We know what we need to know. Do you have any questions for me?”

“Sure, how about why the hell am I in a tank like I’m some kind of giant lizard?” The man chuckled at that. “Wasn’t a joke,” she added.

“Well Vanessa, I don’t know how much you know about us, but here at Vishkar we’re constantly striving to develop new and better technologies for the good of all humanity. Your abilities are fascinating! They could definitely find some great use once we figure out how to replicate it.”

“How the hell are you gonna do that?”

“Well, first we’ve got to figure out exactly _what_ happened to your atoms to grant them such flexibility and rapid recovery. ‘Radiation’ is the simple answer, but it’s not specific enough. So we’ll run some tests on you, pretty much process of elimination until we isolate what _in_ the radiation did this to you, and how.”

“Then what? You let me go?”

“Oh, of course.”

Boss huffed. “Yeah, right. Okay. So where are my friends?”

“They’re all fine. We’ve just settled them into their–”

“They in cages, too?”

“–rooms, and we’ll be meeting with them soon. Oh, by the way…” He picked up a clipboard off a table nearby. “What can you tell me about the older woman who’s with you? All her records seem to have been scrubbed. We couldn’t find anything about her.”

Boss laughed. “First thing, I have no idea. Second, I wouldn’t tell you if I did. Mind your own fucking business.”

That shook the man’s fake friendliness for real. “All right,” he replied. “Would’ve made it safer for her when we attempt replication, but…”

Boss crawled toward the front of the tank, closer to the man. “Wait, what the hell does that mean? You’re not testing on them, are you?”

The man strode over to a panel on the side of her cage and started to input something. “Obviously the procedure to replicate your abilities will be an experimental and very dangerous one. We’ll absolutely have to test it numerous times before we can perfect it and present it as our latest invention.”

Boss drew back. “No…you’re not…”

“And thankfully we’ve got an entire Outback full of Junkers to test on, too. The Australian government was _very_ interested in us cleaning them out quickly and quietly. Why waste perfectly good test subjects?”

“You’re not doing this to anyone else! I’m not going to let you!” She felt her body start to melt, the way it always did now when she got emotionally overwhelmed. She struggled to hold herself together and maintain a form solid enough to bang on the wall of the tank. “Are you listening to me?? And you can’t hold me like this and test on me without my consent anyway, it’s a human rights violation. You’ll get shut down for–”

“Using a corpse for scientific research is perfectly legal.” The man’s voice was calm, eerily so. “And you were donated to us by the Australian government for just such a purpose.”

“I’m not a corpse! Not…really…”

A half dozen wires wormed out of the walls of the tank and embedded themselves in Boss’ flesh. They were made of the same bizarre translucent blue material as the tank’s inner walls, and she could not escape them by melting herself into energy either. Boss writhed and struggled to free herself, but they only sank themselves in deeper. The man sat back down in front of her, clipboard at the ready. Boss was just opening her mouth to yell at him again when suddenly a searing heat, much stronger than the shock from the walls, arced through her body. She couldn’t feel pain anymore, but she felt an overwhelming drain on her energy that made her sick and dizzy with how quickly it overtook her. Her vision went white and her hearing dropped out. It was like the material world fell away from her – or she fell away from it. She didn’t even have time to think about what was happening before she lost all awareness and lapsed into total blankness.

* * *

 

Hana’s hands covered her mouth as she watched a half dozen agents of Vishkar dissect Boss’ body, with about as much care as high schoolers dissecting a frog. They separated her into a bunch of different pieces – could she even come back from that? Bile rose in the back of Hana’s throat as she found herself unable to look away from the horror scene.

Thankfully the horrifying images eventually cut back to just the black screen and purple skull logo. “Wh…” Hana could barely even finish her sentence. “Why…would they do that?”

_Because they’re evil. They’re evil and they’re coming for your home, for my home, eventually they’re gonna come round up all us derelicts and force us all into their bullshit “utopias”. Well, that or kill us. I’m guessing your friends are gonna fall into the second category._

Hana swallowed. “Are you just guessing? Or do you know something?”

_Well, Vishkar has a complete medical profile for a Jamison Fawkes and a Mako Rutledge, and a partial one for your pal Ana. They literally said they were gonna try to replicate your friend Vanessa’s weird radiation powers using Junker test subjects, so yeah, doesn’t take a genius to figure out they’re going to be the first subjects. And it looks like Vishkar’s fully planning on them not surviving it._

Hana sank to her knees. Her whole body suddenly felt cold, a deep chill that couldn’t be shivered out. Her hands trembled. She stared down at the floor, afraid to look back up at the ominous holovid again. “This...is all my fault. Everyone’s going to die and it’s all my fault.”

When finally she dared to look up at the screen again, the hacker had written, _Oh quit being so dramatic, chiquita. We can still get them out._

“You’re going to help me?”

_For the right price._

“I don’t have anything.” Hana turned her pants’ pockets inside out in view of the holovid. “If you can get me back to Australia you can have whatever money is left at my parents’ house. It’s probably not much, but…”

 _I don’t want your money. What do you think I am, some kind of common criminal?_ After a few seconds the hacker added, _Actually, don’t answer that._

“So what do you want, then?”

_We’ll talk about that later. But trust me, it’s something you have._

Hana didn’t like this one bit. For all she knew it could be an attempt by Vishkar to get Hana to put her trust in someone who was actually working for them. _Why would they send someone to talk to me about escaping, though?_ Thoughts of escape grew further from her mind with each passing day. She was becoming passive and spoiled at Vishkar, their constant mind games dulling her willpower and rewarding her for unquestioning obedience. It didn’t seem likely that they’d try to re-invoke escape fantasies in her mind again.

“So what do you want me to do, then?” Hana asked.

_Just pay attention to everything around you. Maybe take some notes if you can. I’m gonna need an insider perspective if I’m gonna shut this place down._

“Okay. I can do that.”

_Good. I’ll be in touch again soon._

“All right.” Hana paused a moment. “Thank you.”

_Lol. Don’t thank me, kid. I’m not doing this for you._

The holovid powered down. Hana turned it on again only to find normal holovid channels and nothing else. A moment later the camera in the corner powered back on and resumed its quiet, constant humming.

 _Guess I’m an accomplice to a hacker now._ Hana crawled back into bed and flopped down on her stomach. The person seemed shifty as all hell, but they _did_ seem genuine in their desire to attack Vishkar, if they were the same hacker those employees had been talking about a few weeks ago. _It’s not like I have a lot of options for allies._ Especially if it was true that Vishkar was planning on using the Junkers as lab rats.

She spent the rest of the night thinking. Thinking and planning.


	12. The Root of All Evil

“I’m glad to see you taking such an interest in our work.” Satya clasped her hands together and smiled. She had an awkward smile, Hana had noticed some time ago. Her tongue stuck out from between her teeth a little bit, and she tended to smile more with one side of her mouth than the other. It was kind of cute, Hana supposed. It didn’t seem like she smiled much. Maybe she wasn’t used to it.

Hana followed her through a wing of Vishkar she had never seen before. “This is our board room.” Satya waved her prosthetic arm toward a room with a glass wall to the inside. Several Vishkar employees in suits sat around a table with a bunch of paperwork and holograms scattered across it. They seemed to be in the middle of an intense discussion.

“What are they talking about?” She almost didn’t ask, but that hacker had told her to take in as much information as possible. She didn’t care, but they probably would.

“I am uncertain.” Satya tapped her chin. “I would guess perhaps it is the Dorado deal Vishkar has been trying to secure.”

“Dorado deal?”

“Oh, we are in talks with the Mexican government to acquire their city of Dorado as a future location for one of our utopias. It has been overrun by gangs and criminals, and the city is looking to clean up its image.”

 _Dorado._ She’d have to remember that name for later. “Where else do you guys have projects?”

“As of right now our only completed cities are in India, and soon to be in Australia, of course. We were building in Brazil as well, but there were some…issues. Our development there is on hold right now.”

“What were the issues?”

“There were some clashes with stubborn locals who did not want our assistance.”

“Oh yeah?” That piqued Hana’s interest. “Why?”

Satya shook her head. Her lips curled into a sneer. “They prefer to live in filth, and I will never understand why. It seems they consider it a sort of cultural badge of honor or something. Must be a sad existence to have so little real culture that you feel you must cling to dirt and poverty in its stead.”

Hana whistled. “Brutal.”

“It’s true,” Satya replied. “You learned that there is no purpose in trying to return to your ‘Junker’ lifestyle. Why can’t they see that as well?”

“Whoa, whoa, wait.” Hana stopped in the hallway. “I haven’t given up on going back to my Junker lifestyle.”

Satya frowned. “Really? You seem quite acclimated here.”

“Well I’m not.” She mentally slapped herself for being so impulsive. _Just let her think you’re coming over to their side. Then she’ll be less suspicious of you._ “I mean…I still haven’t decided yet.”

That seemed to satisfy the other woman. “I think you have,” she said, flashing Hana that awkward little smile again. “There is no need to cling to your suffering from the past. It does not define you.”

What Satya would never understand was that her suffering _did_ define her now. That was who she was – scarred, homeless, orphaned, yet nonetheless a survivor. That could never be separated from her. The people who rejected Vishkar’s interference in Brazil most likely felt the same way.

“This is the training room,” Satya continued once it became clear Hana wasn’t going to respond, “or rather, one of several training rooms. Occasionally a technological breakthrough will allow us to perform more effectively than we were taught at the Architech academy. So we train and practice here.”

Hana glanced into the empty rooms with thinly-veiled disinterest. “Any major breakthroughs lately?”

“Not…very lately.” Satya shook her head. “We have been focusing more on establishing a company identity to present to the world first. Most of our recent training has been of a Public Relations nature.”

“What happened to you guys that’s got you so desperate for good PR?” Hana couldn’t resist asking.

“Evil people.” Satya’s tone took on a note of anger, surprising Hana a little. “People who do not want us to be able to help the world. They spread fear and misinformation and stubbornly refuse to accept change, no matter how positive.”

It took all Hana had not to blurt out _You guys are literally torturing my friend for a science experiment._ “Oh,” she said instead. “Are there a lot of, uh, evil people trying to stop Vishkar?”

Satya nodded. “But they are cowards. They cannot hurt us. They cannot hurt you, either – I will see to that.”

Hana flushed a little. “Um, thanks. I appreciate that.”

“It is my duty to protect the vulnerable, to help elevate humankind as a whole. You do not have to thank me, Hana.”

Hana shoved her hands in her pockets as they continued onward. She wondered if it would ever be possible to sway Satya from her Vishkar loyalty. She would never fit in with the Junkers, but surely there had to be a better place for her somewhere out there. She had so much potential to be a good person. To do _actual_ good for the world.

She remained quiet for the rest of the tour, letting Satya show her every inch of Vishkar in agonizing detail.

* * *

 

The second time the hacker appeared to Hana they didn’t communicate through text. Instead they presented themselves directly to her, disguised by a black hooded cloak and a mask that resembled the skull logo from the first time. Their voice was distorted as well, making it impossible to tell their age, gender, or anything else, really. All Hana could glean from them was that they seemed to have some sort of accent. With all the distortion on their voice it was impossible to nail down where the accent was from.

“Vishkar is trying to reach a deal with the Mexican government to renovate a city called ‘Dorado’.” Hana sat in the crappy fold-out chair that had been collecting dust in the corner of her room and stared up at the hacker utilizing her holovid.

The hacker nodded. “I knew that already. Do you know how far along they are? They’ve been keeping some of their most precious sensitive information out of their system – probably handwritten and hidden somewhere. I think they know I’m on to them.”

Hana shook her head. “I wasn’t in the meeting room with them. That’s just what Satya told me.”

“Satya Vaswani, right?”

“Um, maybe? I don’t think she ever told me her last name.”

“She’s got a real interesting story.” The hacker lifted a hand, revealing a glowing purple glove with long pointed “nails” on each fingertip. With a wave of their fingers a hologram projection of several files appeared in front of them. “Constantly getting pulled out of class for behavioral problems as a kid…there’s a bunch of teacher writeups about her having screaming meltdowns and refusing to work with the other kids. She was failing out of her classes until Vishkar came scouting to her school and apparently saw some potential in her. Realized she needed ‘special education’. Guess she was poor as shit, too – according to Vishkar’s records they were able to convince her parents to give her up to them so she’d have a better life, decent clothes, enough food, stuff any parent would want for their kid.”

“So her parents gave her up to Vishkar?” Hana lowered her eyes. “That’s sad.”

“How is it sad?” The hacker’s cool tone took on a harsh edge. “She got a VIP ticket right out of starving to death in rags. After that she got whatever she wanted. She’s so freaking spoiled she can’t even _consider_ her own feelings and opinions ever possibly being wrong.” The hacker waved away Satya’s files. “She’s one of Vishkar’s most loyal guard dogs, and she’ll be a problem for us. We’re gonna have to take her out before we can bring Vishkar down.”

“Wait, what?” Hana got to her feet. “What do you mean ‘take her out’?”

“Whatever we have to do. Blackmail her, silence her…” The hacker shrugged. “Kill her.”

“I’m not killing Satya! She’s the _only_ decent person here.”

“What are you, friends with them now? Do I need to remind you that they’re keeping your Junker buddies locked up to be experimented on?”

Hana swallowed. Reluctantly, she sat back down. “No. You’re right.” She rested her chin on her palm and sighed. “Maybe we can get her out of the way without killing her.”

“I’d be all for that. I like to do things as quietly as possible.”

Hana exhaled as she tried to think of any way they’d be able to steer Satya away from Vishkar’s goals. She definitely wouldn’t go down without a fight. She’d have to have a massively compelling reason not to continue opposing the Junkers – Hana would have to find some way to get through to her about it.

“I wonder if she knows what they’re trying to do to my friends.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“She said earlier that she doesn’t know everything that Vishkar does. She said something like ‘One limb of the body doesn’t have to know what the whole body is doing’.”

“What? Who the hell would turn down information about their own company?” The hacker steepled their fingers, touching their glowing purple fingertips together. “Hm. That sounds more to me like she knows there’s stuff going on that she’d rather not believe.”

“You think so?”

“If you knew the company you were pretty much raised by and spent your whole life working for was up to some shady shit, would you want to face it? Wouldn’t it be easier to just turn a blind eye and pretend you don’t know about it? Especially if they’re your meal ticket and your free ride out of being dirt poor.”

Hana frowned. She couldn’t totally blame Satya for that. She was clinging to the Junkers despite knowing they weren’t the greatest of people. When you had nothing else, whatever you were able to cling to became your family. And separating from your “family” was one of the hardest things in the world.

“I could see to it that she gets a copy of some of that security footage I showed you yesterday,” the hacker continued. “Plant the seed, you know? The seed of doubt.”

“Could you really do that?”

The hacker laughed. “Hana, I can do whatever I want. Satya lives in Vishkar-sponsored housing on-site here. I can transfer the files from Vishkar’s computers to Satya’s personal computer like _that_.” They snapped their fingers demonstratively.

“So you’ll do it?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Hana hesitated. “What do you want in return?”

The hacker snickered. “Wow, you learned to play by my rules super quick. Good girl!” They clapped sarcastically. “Just keep listening for any valuable info you might pick up inside Vishkar. Relay it all to me. That’ll help to ensure our little partnership here is _mutually beneficial_. Ya know?”

“Okay. I can do that.”

“Great. I’ll transfer the intel overnight. Can’t make her believe it, but we can drop it right in her lap and at least get her thinking about it.”

“Yeah.” Hana exhaled a soft, quiet breath. _Come on, stop being such a wimp. Satya’s part of Vishkar. You hate Vishkar._ Their mind games must have been working on her. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Yeah. We’ll get her out of the way. We’ll…” _Destroy her entire life for my own benefit._ “…Yeah.”

The hacker ended their communication without so much as a goodbye. Hana remained slumped in the chair for a long time afterward, her gaze on the floor.

* * *

 

Whatever Vishkar had done to her, they’d done it good and thoroughly. Boss had little idea how much time passed in her bizarre state of incorporeality. It was like they had sucked her energy right out of her body – or maybe converted her body fully into energy. She couldn’t really tell.

There were multiple obvious downsides to losing access to your physical form, but there were a few upsides as well. One of them was the ability to exist in places your body could not – including multiple places at once. In fact, once she learned to filter the flood of information Boss found she could keep a constant metaphorical eye on a sizable area of “Vishkar Corporation”. Quite a useful ability, though she couldn’t actually make much use of any of the information she picked up.

Of course her first visit had been back to the room where Vishkar had done this bizarre thing to her. The tank that had held her body was filled with a radiant green light, the same shade her body usually took on when she was using her radioactive abilities, in a state of constant motion. In fact it seemed to be hooked up to a system of reinforced piping, made of that same translucent blue material, and was being transferred to and from other lab-like rooms on what turned out to be the underground level of the building. _They’re using me as energy!_ _Or…something._ She found her omniscience grew cloudier as she moved up through the floors of the building, farther away from the energy source. She must have still been attached to it in some form. Maybe the reason she was able to spread her consciousness out like this was because these white coats were stretching her all over the place.

It didn’t take long for her to find her next biggest concern. It was curled up on a small bed in some kind of solitary cell, sleeping quite restlessly. Boss settled her consciousness beside Hana and watched her sleep for a few minutes. These Vishkar people must have cleaned her up. Her hair and face were spotless, and for once Boss was actually able to see her without those ridiculous oversized goggles she always wore. _God, she’s so cute._ She didn’t deserve to be locked up like this. She was a good kid thrown into bad circumstances.

Hana turned over in bed. She was hugging her pillow rather than sleeping atop it, and when she flopped over she gave it a tight squeeze. _Don’t be upset, Deevs._ Boss made every attempt at contact with her, despite knowing she would get nowhere with it. _I’m gonna find us a way out of here._

Either the reassurance somehow had its desired impact or it was a complete coincidence, but a moment later Hana released the pillow and settled into a quieter, calmer state. For as tough as she tried to be, it was so obvious Hana was just a naïve and terrified young girl. Boss could relate. She’d always tried to project an image of being strong and impenetrable – hell, she didn’t even like to refer to herself by her real name because it felt so weak to her – but underneath that façade she was like a house of cards. A house of cards built by a drunk. On an active fault line.

She decided to remain with Hana as much as possible while also combing through other parts of the building. Junkrat, Roadhog, and Ana were all accounted for, though none of them looked too pleased with their situation. At night there weren’t many employees around to spy on, so she couldn’t get much out of that. Eventually she opted to return to “her” room, thinking that perhaps something there could help her.

 _Of course I have to be dealing with the neatest damn scientists in the world._ Seriously, _everything_ was put away. Not a single beaker was left lying about. Boss recalled her many labs at uni, the way they always looked like they’d been hit by an undergrad tornado. Clearly she and these folks did _not_ go to the same school.

She moved toward her energy tank. Something was taped to the outside of it. She moved in close to read the note.

_Subject 1_

_Do not disengage power. Ongoing test._

_Samuels_

She wondered if Samuels was the asshole doctor who did this to her. _I wonder what’d happen if the power went out._ Would she be sucked back into her body? Would she be thrown somewhere completely different? Would her energy just be dispersed into the aether?

She continued to search the building, desperate for some answers.

* * *

 

Another positive to being, well, forcibly disembodied was that the assholes who did it to her now had no idea she was hanging around spying on them. She managed to locate a sparse few night shift employees who were sitting in some sort of break room, drinking coffee and chatting. Boss settled herself right beside them and proceeded to eavesdrop on their entire conversation.

“Overnight should seriously be double time,” a youngish man at the table muttered. “Time and a half just isn’t worth it to botch my whole sleep schedule.”

“I don’t know why they even need us here. Everything’s automated anyway.” A young woman, also clutching a coffee, sighed.

“I mean, I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry in case something goes wrong, but seriously, why can’t we just leave the Architechs here overnight or something? I bet Satya would spend her whole night staring at one machine if we told her to.”

They both laughed. Boss felt the disgust rise up inside her. _These people are the worst._

“Oh my God, do you know about her and that refugee girl? Hana Song or whatever?”

Boss perked up at the mention of Hana. In the back of her mind a quick thought crept up. _Her last name is Song? That’s…fittingly adorable._

The man looked intrigued. “No, what happened?”

The woman chuckled. “Okay, Swarnali is terrible. She stuck Satya with her all day long one day – I can’t even guess why, except that she maybe figured it would drive Satya to one of those hilarious tantrums she throws every so often when she has to get her hands a little dirty. You know what I mean?”

“Oh yeah, I was there for the infamous Big One during the Christmas party last year. The one where she ended up under the table crying because the lobby was messy.”

“Oh my God, you were there for that?” The woman covered her mouth with one hand. “I only heard about that one.”

“Yeah, it was funny, but so second-hand embarrassing. I ended up lying and telling my wife she was drunk because I didn’t know what else to say.”

“Ugh. Well anyway, Swarnali set her and this refugee girl up together to see what would happen or something, and would you believe it – they hit it off. Fast friends.”

“No way.”

“I saw them at dinner together two nights in a row. Swarnali can’t believe it either.”

 _So Hana’s making friends here, huh?_ Boss guessed it was no surprise. Hana had that way about her. You just couldn’t dislike her. Maybe that’s why she’d been so popular online.

She couldn’t help but wonder who this “Satya” was, though. Boss mentally filed the name away to investigate later.

“So is she gonna throw another fit now once this refugee…goes away?” The man lowered his voice. Thankfully Boss could get as close as she needed to, and could hear them both clear as day.

Taking another sip of her coffee, the woman shook her head. “No, this is the one that’s staying. Apparently she’s kind of famous or something. After the LumériCo fiasco they’re probably gonna milk her for all the good press she’s worth.”

“Ah, yeah. That makes sense.”

Boss growled, though of course it went unheard by everyone, including herself. **_None_** _of my Junkers are ‘going away’. Not if I have anything to say about it._

The rest of the Vishkar employees’ conversation was as dull as they seemed to be. Boss eventually sought information elsewhere. She was curious about some of the names they mentioned. She didn’t expect to find much, but looking never hurt.

* * *

 

The mysterious woman Satya didn’t turn out to be difficult to locate. She slept in a satellite building separate from the main one, sort of like a house...an extremely utilitarian one. It was a bit difficult for Boss to transfer her consciousness there since it was a fair distance from her body, but she could get a clear enough view. Everything in the house was cold and sterile-looking. Everything was perfectly organized, perfectly straightened, more like a furniture showroom than a lived-in home.

She found Satya sleeping alone in a massive bed. Her lithe frame barely made a dent under the perfectly-smoothed, tucked-in blankets. Boss realized with some degree of surprise that the woman was missing an arm. Her left shoulder simply dropped off rather than extending into a limb. A bright white prosthetic one sat perfectly centered on a desk not far away.

Boss hovered at the foot of the woman’s bed for some time. Why did she live here? Who lived at their workplace? Boss briefly recalled her agonizing stint as an office intern in college. You couldn’t have paid her to spend her nights there. Was this woman some kind of prisoner like the Junkers?

No, probably not. But she certainly wasn’t taken very seriously by her coworkers despite her apparent dedication to the job. _Maybe you’re a shitty person too, but nobody deserves to get laughed at when they’re having a breakdown._ At least it sounded like a breakdown from the way those shitheels had described her behavior. _And if Hana likes you, well, you’re probably not that bad. So I’m doubly sorry._

A faint humming sound in the corner of the room alerted Boss. The computer on the desk suddenly whirred to life, with some sort of bizarre screen scrolling through hundreds of lines of code. Boss watched it curiously. Her vision was strained at such a distance from her body, preventing her from reading the fine print on the screen, but it didn’t look like something good. Satya was still fast asleep and thus didn’t notice the odd happening. After about thirty seconds the monitor faded to black, and the computer shut back down again.

_Hm. Weird._

Her extended consciousness, still hovering around her friends underground, detected similar goings-on at a few computers in the main building. The computer beside her holding cell was doing the same thing. At such close proximity to her body Boss could actually catch some words on that screen – it was accessing restricted folders and uploading their contents to somewhere else. _Maybe this is some kind of automated system backup that Vishkar runs?_

Before the files could finish uploading, suddenly the room went dark. The power was out for only a couple of seconds before it blinked back on, but the interruption terminated the uploading process. Boss highly doubted a place like this had a faulty power supply. It seemed more like some sort of kill switch had been flipped. Like someone with limited computer knowledge had been desperate to cancel whatever was going on.

 _Hm. Maybe this place has more enemies than just us Junkers._ It wouldn’t be too surprising considering they were literally experimenting on people and plotting to wipe out the remaining population of the Outback with experimental nuclear testing. Who knows how many other groups they’d done this to before the Junkers?

Boss was interested in investigating the rest of the building after that, to see if she could get any explanations from employees. But as she tried to warp her consciousness to another part of the building, she found she was stuck…in the tank from before. She reached out and pressed against the glass with both hands – wait, since when did she have hands again? She gasped. _The power went out. It must have shut down the machine they were using on me._

She had reformed her body. All the pieces Vishkar had chopped her into mustn’t have been able to maintain a form in the physical world. She had to be all together to function. And now she was. _Awesome._

After fumbling around in it for a few minutes, she managed to get reacquainted enough with her body to stand up and center herself. _They were testing me as a source of energy. Now that I’m all together again…I wonder if I could short the power out myself?_

Boss clenched her fists as they gained their familiar sickly green glow. She concentrated all her thoughts on spreading her energy back out like before, this time picturing it exploding out of her with enough strength to disrupt the power flow of the building. _They want to use me as a power source? I think I can give them that._

Her whole body flared into vibrant green light as she pushed it to levels she had never dared to before.

* * *

 

If Satya watched the footage the hacker had sent her, she didn’t say anything about it. She did, however, act noticeably different around Hana. It started when Hana met with her for their usual lunch date the next afternoon. Satya was a lot of things, but one thing she _wasn’t_ was a liar. She was honest to a fault, often brutally so. So when she spent the entire lunch avoiding eye contact with Hana, it said all Hana needed to know.

“So…” Hana eventually said, “How are you? Sleep well last night?”

“Oh…” Satya toyed with her fork. “Er, yes. Fine. I mean, I am well. I slept well. And yourself?”

“I slept okay. Thanks.” She smiled at Satya. Satya kept her gaze averted. “By the way, I wanted to thank you again for asking about the medical stuff for me yesterday. It means a lot that you’re looking out for me.”

Satya’s shoulders tensed. “…Of course. You’re welcome.”

“You know, I was really worried for my friends at first, since I didn’t know how Vishkar was treating them.” Hana kept Satya pinned with a syrupy-sweet smile. “But you guys treat me so well that I don’t feel so worried about them anymore. I’m sure they’re in good hands.”

Satya lowered her eyes to the table. “Vishkar tries to do what is best for all of humanity,” she murmured, almost too quiet for Hana to hear.

“Well I appreciate it. My friend Boss, um, Vanessa, she’s been through a lot. I think she wants to get back to her parents at some point. They’re gonna be so excited to find out she’s still with us.”

Satya bit her lip. “Hana…”

Hana feigned innocence. “Hm?”

Satya took a deep breath. With some reservation she said, “Hana, your friends may not ever return to their families. It would seem Vishkar has a greater plan for them. One that benefits the human race as a whole.”

Hana stared at her for a long moment. “What do you mean?”

Satya straightened her spine, the usual pose she struck when she was about to rattle off some B.S. she’d swallowed from Vishkar years ago. “Sometimes we must make sacrifices for the greater good of humanity, for our species to be elevated and placed upon the true path of greatness for which we were destined. Unfortunately not all of us are worthy of the true reality.”

Hana continued to stare at her, chewing audibly. After she swallowed her mouthful of food she said, “You’re saying a whole bunch of words, but none of them really mean anything.”

“What do you mean? I am being perfectly clear.”

“Sum it up in ten words or less.”

Satya pursed her lips. She spent a few moments tapping her fingers on the table, clearly parsing it out in her head. “Vishkar understands that sacrifices must be made to advance humankind.”

“What kind of ‘sacrifices’?”

Satya didn’t seem to catch on that Hana was purposely playing dumb. “Some of us must…perish. It teaches the rest of us the way.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” Hana’s eyes widened. She touched her fingertips to her mouth. “You’re…you’re not gonna kill my friends, are you?”

Satya stared at her for a long time. Hana noticed her teeth catch her lip again, as she tried to keep her expression rigid and unfaltering. Hana’s own lip quivered a bit, partly an act and partly out of genuine emotion.

“Please don’t let them hurt my friends,” she whispered.

Satya visibly swallowed. “I am…sorry, Hana. I do not know for sure what Vishkar will do, but whatsoever they choose will be done for the good of all of us. You must trust me on this.”

A fat, round tear found its way down Hana’s cheek. It was followed by a twin on her other cheek, leaving two glistening trails down her face and two tiny splotches on the table beneath her. Satya at first withdrew, but then cautiously reached her organic hand toward Hana’s. The gesture reminded her of how Ana had reacted to her crying so long ago. That memory only stirred up more tears.

“Please, Hana–” Satya touched her hand lightly, “This is not – this is highly unprofessional. Please, collect yourself.”

“Unprofessional…” Hana sniffled, but it did little to hold back the tears or mucous that was quickly reducing her to a gross, sobbing mess. “S-sorry. Don’t want to be…unprofessional.”

Satya glanced around at their neighboring tables. Thankfully the dining area had largely cleared out, but the stragglers were purposely ignoring Hana anyway.

Satya leaned in closer, lowering her voice to nearly a whisper. “On occasions where I would allow myself to be overwhelmed by my own emotions, that was how my colleagues would pull me back to reality.” Satya seemed uncertain of her own words. “It _is_ unprofessional. Unprofessional and a sign of weakness.”

Hana took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself somewhat. “You’ve cried in front of your coworkers before?”

After a moment of hesitation, Satya eventually nodded. “It is my own flaw. I cannot be as perfect as I wish to be, although Vishkar helps me to reach my greatest potential.”

“Is my friends’ greatest potential being dead?”

“I know it sounds strange, but…”

Hana folded her arms up tight to her chest and stared down at her feet.

“Oh, Hana...” Satya clasped her hands together and rested her elbows on the table. “I know it is difficult for you to understand. Truthfully, it is difficult for me to understand as well. It is hard for me to justify sacrificing even a single life, even knowing it may improve the lives of many others.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Hana mumbled. “You could stop them.”

Satya shook her head. “I am but a tool of Vishkar’s ambitions. I willingly accept that role, but with it comes drawbacks. Tools are not made to defy the will of the one who wields them.”

“So you’d stop them if you could?”

Satya didn’t seem to have an answer for that.

“The only reason I ever went along with you guys is because you said my friends would be safe. I never should have trusted you.” Hana got up from the table and started to walk away. From behind her she heard Satya murmur something. She glanced over her shoulder just long enough to see the other woman still seated at the table, her eyes cast downward.

Maybe she could get through to Satya. Maybe.

* * *

 

It was late in the day when the commotion started. It was well-contained, and Hana may not have noticed it if she hadn’t been scouting for that hacker. There was just the slightest hint of something in the air. “What’s going on?” she asked Swarnali, who was brushing through the snarls in Hana’s hair and treating her, as per usual, more like a doll than a human being.

“What do you mean? Nothing’s going on.”

Hana turned in her seat and leveled the woman with a flat stare.

They’d spent enough time together that Swarnali must have known Hana would not give up on asking. “It’s your friend Ana,” she finally said. “I guess she isn’t well.”

Hana froze. “What do you mean she isn’t well?”

“I’m not sure. She complained of chest pain. We’re having our in-house doctor look at her.”

“You have an in-house doctor?”

Swarnali nodded.

“What do you need that for? Is it just for doing under-the-table medical examinations on your hostages?”

Swarnali winced at the harshness of Hana’s words. “No,” she replied, “we offer full medical care to our staff through the program. Extending care to criminals is just an act of altruism on our part.”

“How noble of you.” She bit back nastier words. _So kind of you guys to check out the old woman you’ve been holding against her will for a month._ “Can I see her? You told me I’d be able to see my friends while I was here.”

Swarnali hesitated. “I’d have to obtain permission first. You might be able to see her, if she’s feeling well enough.”

“How bad is she?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t personally seen her.”

Hana swallowed. _They might have already started experimenting on her._ Wouldn’t the hacker know that, though? Maybe they _did_ know and just weren’t telling Hana yet.

“Can you ask if I can see her?”

“Later. I’m sure they won’t let you see her now, while she’s been examined.”

Hana scowled. “Right. Later.”

* * *

 

Of course they wouldn’t let her see Ana. It had been foolish to even ask.

“They said they’re keeping her in the examination room overnight to ‘make sure she’s all right’.” Hana kept her head bowed as she spoke to the mysterious figure on her holovid, who was becoming more and more of a familiarity in her bland, monotonous existence with Vishkar.

“Her record says she’s stable. Seems like they can’t find anything wrong with her.”

Hana paused. “Are they making up the record?”

“Could be. Could also be your friend is making up that there’s something wrong with her.”

“Is there any way you can get into contact with her? Or get me in contact with her?”

“No way, amiga. That hospital room is monitored like crazy. I’d get my cover blown instantly.”

Hana’s shoulders sagged. Would Ana really lie about being unwell? What would be the point of that? It must be Vishkar lying.

“Vishkar’s probably covering something up. I hope they’re not testing on Ana…”

“Well at least you have me to help you out. And I’m a fair, reasonable person who only asks for information in return.” The hacker snickered. “Maybe I can help Ana out if you get me some info about…whoa, wait, what’s going on?”

Hana’s head snapped up, fixing on the hacker. “What?”

“There’s something weird going on in one of the labs nearby…” The hacker leaned sideways, apparently studying something off-screen. “That’s weird, it almost looks like–”

The holovid made a loud popping sound. The screen burst into nothing but noisy static, then winked out and left the holovid black. Unsure what to make of it, Hana took a few steps backwards. As she backed up against her bed something clicked somewhere in the building. With a quiet _whirr_ Hana’s room fell into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the update schedule has been a little bumpy lately, but that's because I went and re-wrote a whole bunch of later chapters and had to change these ones to lead into those changes. We should be back to a fairly regular (weekly) update schedule from here on out. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! As always kudos and comments are super super appreciated!


	13. Wanderlust

Apparently Hana wasn’t quite as browbeaten as she’d believed she was. The moment she heard a familiar click she was at the door and pulling it open. Without electricity the room’s high-tech locks were no challenge. She was just able to escape the room before some sort of emergency generator must have kicked on, relocking the door behind her and powering up just a single overhead light in the hallway.

She may not have known what the hell was going on, but she knew for damn sure that if she was ever going to have a shot at getting out of Vishkar, a surprise power outage was probably it.

She started to hear voices from other parts of the building. The Vishkar employees working the night shift were all in an uproar. _What the heck even happened?_ She didn’t allow herself time to postulate an answer. The sound of rapid footsteps behind her kicked her into motion. She darted around a corner, keeping hidden from the employees hurrying by. It wasn’t difficult to do, as the employees were clearly in a panic and did not seem to be looking for escaped Junkers at that moment.

She perked up at the sound of a familiar _step-click, step-click, step-click_ echoing from the other end of the hall. She could have cried with relief when she spotted Junkrat limping toward her, waving eagerly.

“You got out!” Hana stole a glance around to make sure they weren’t being followed. When she was sure they were alone, she threw her arms around him and hugged him quickly.

With a bit of visible surprise Junkrat hugged her back. “I didn’t see Roadie or your friend Ana,” he said. His tone was markedly more solemn than she was used to. It sounded so strange to her. She guessed that could only be expected after so many weeks of being caged up like an animal. “I don’t think they got out.”

Hana crouched and hurried down the hallway. Junkrat followed suit. Truthfully she had no idea what she was doing, but she guessed it was good to at least look like she had a plan.

They scuttled down the hall in silence at first, but eventually Junkrat couldn’t resist opening his mouth. “So do you have any idea what’s even goin’ on right now?” he loudly whispered to Hana.

“I’ve been talking to a hacker that apparently hates Vishkar as much as we do,” she whispered back. “I’m wondering if they did something.”

With another _whirr_ the limited power supplied by the generators suddenly cut out as well. “ _Ana!_ ” Hana whispered loudly, despite knowing the walls were all most likely as soundproof as her own had been. “ _Roadhog!_ ”

One of the doors flew open and slammed off the wall. Roadhog forced his way out through the small doorway. They had apparently taken his mask and makeshift armor, for he was in nothing but the pair of torn pants he’d worn into the place.

“Roadie!” Junkrat hopped over to him. “We’re bustin’ out of here, pal! C’mon!”

Roadhog lumbered down the hall after them. “I don’t know what room Ana’s in,” Hana whispered. “She’s supposedly in some special medical room being examined.”

With one huge, meaty fist Roadhog started pounding on each door. “Oi, what’re you doin’ mate?” Junkrat hopped nervously around him. “What if there’s someone else in one’a these cells?”

Rather than knocking, Hana started simply yanking doors open. All the rooms she checked were empty. Eventually they reached the end of the hall, with only one door remaining. “She’s gotta be in this one.”

Hana pulled the door open. Instead of Ana, what she found sent her staggering backward.

The room appeared more like some sort of laboratory. What startled Hana was not the room itself, but the thing hovering in the middle of it – a massive, vaguely-human-shaped entity of neon green light. It almost looked like a ghost in terms of its poorly-defined shape and long, flowing limbs.

Its body twisted toward Hana, practically searing her eyes with how bright it was. “ _HANA!_ ” The voice was highly distorted, as if the creature’s vocal chords were partially melted. “ _I DID IT! IT WAS ME!_ ” Some sort of horrific, gurgling noise emerged from the creature as it thrust its oozing, almost-dripping hands of light or energy out triumphantly before it.

“Wh-what are you?” Hana kept her eyes shielded with one hand as she cautiously approached the creature.

Its triumphant pose melted away. It tilted its vaguely head-shaped appendage. “ _IT’S…ME. IT’S BOSS._ ”

“Boss?!” Hana rushed over to her. “Oh my God, what happened to you??”

“ _I…I’M…_ ” She began to sink downward, her lower half melting into a puddle of energy on the floor around her. “ _I THINK I…need help…_ ”

With a note of hesitation, Hana reached out to Boss, and touched her fingertips to one of her massive, tentacle-like limbs of pure light. As soon as they made contact a surge of energy jolted through Hana. The sheer force of it knocked her to the floor.

Stunned, she sat up and rubbed her head. “Ungh…what the…huh?” She blinked a few times. The lab was gone. She was lying instead on the floor of some sort of factory – or rather the ruins of a factory. _Is this…the omnium?_

The lower half of her body was crushed under some sort of dimly-glowing chunk of metal. It seemed like it should have been painful, but she felt nothing. Hana lifted it off of herself and then stumbled to her feet. “Hello?” The voice that called out was not her own. It belonged to Boss. “Is anybody else…?”

Hana gasped as she spotted a handful of people lying scattered across the floor not too far from her. And they were quite literally scattered – their bodies were melted, puddles of liquefied flesh still bubbling on the floor a stretch away from them. Hana felt sickness churn in her stomach, but she could not empty it. “H-Hello??” Boss’ voice called again, much less certain the second time. “Professor? Anyone? Is anybody still…alive…?”

Parts of the ceiling had apparently crashed down in the explosion, poking holes of sunlight through the darkness of the wrecked omnium. Hana crawled over the twisted metal and remains of Boss’ classmates. _What’s going on? Why am I even seeing all this?_

One of the metal scraps she stepped on broke and cracked in half. She heard a noise beneath it, a disturbingly human one. Hana scrambled off the wreckage just in time to notice a girl about her own age semi-crushed beneath it. “Lacey!” Hana lifted the debris off the other girl. “Oh my God, you’re alive! You’re…”

The girl, Lacey, was staring vacantly up at the ceiling. Her body was twitching, and she was making small, incoherent noises. Upon moving the rubble, Hana realized something horrific – the girl’s legs were completely crushed.

“Oh my God. Oh my God, Lacey.” Hana tried to lift her from the wreckage, but the girl groaned and withdrew from her grip.

“V…Va…Vanessa…” The girl’s eyes slid to Hana’s – Boss’ – Vanessa’s – face. Hana winced as she noticed that the girl’s eyes were red with blood.

“I’m here, Lace,” Boss said. “I’m fine! I can help you! I’ll get you out of here!”

Lacey shook her head. An abrupt cough rattled her, and she coughed a puddle of blood onto the floor beside her head.

“S-stop! Let me help you!” Hana grabbed her, a little more roughly this time, and started dragging her across the floor. As she moved forward she realized her skin was changing from Boss’ usual dark brown to an eerie green, the color she took on when she was phasing through things. “I’ll help you…I’ll…help you…” Eventually Hana realized she wasn’t holding onto Lacey anymore. In fact she couldn’t seem to get a hold of anything. Her feet were sinking right through the floor.

“What’s going on??” It was as if she were sinking in quicksand. Her dragging Lacey had left a trail of smeared blood from the poor other girl, who had collapsed and was no longer moving. “Lacey, I’m so sorry – I have no idea what’s happening, I’m–”

Hana gasped as she sat up from the floor of the Vishkar laboratory. Junkrat was crouched next to her, Roadhog staring down at her from her other side. A few meters away Boss was clutching her head, seemingly back to her normal form.

“Jeez, you okay Deevs?” Junkrat offered her his hand. “Thought we lost ya for a tick.”

Still a bit unsteady, Hana let Junkrat help her to her feet. She did not answer him, though – she was focused on Boss instead. She approached the other girl cautiously. “Are you okay, Boss?”

Boss lowered her hands from her face and looked up at Hana. Her eyes still held a reflective green light, like a cat’s. “I…don’t know what just happened. One minute I was trying to cause a power surge, the next minute…” Hana extended a hand to her, which she accepted as she clambered to her feet. “I…think I saw your parents? They looked like you. I mean like, I could see you in them. Um…”

“You saw my parents??” Hana grabbed her arm. “What, like, in the – in the afterlife, or something?”

“I don’t know.” Boss shook her head, still looking a bit confused herself. “They were talking to me like I was you. Maybe it was your memory or something. When we touched like that I was all raw energy, so maybe it opened some kind of weird channel.”

A voice from somewhere down the hall startled them back to the reality of the present situation. “Yeah, let’s maybe chat about this later, right?” Junkrat grabbed hold of both girls and started anxiously pulling them toward the door.

“We still have to find Ana!” Hana let him drag her out into the hallway, but then broke from his grip.

“No, first we gotta find where they stashed our shit. Once we got our weapons back, _then_ we go rescuin’.”

“Actually,” Boss piped up, “I know exactly where they’re keeping our stuff.”

“You do?” both Junkrat and Hana replied.

“Yeah, I saw it when I was – well I can explain it later. Just follow me.”

Junkrat and Roadhog seemed hesitant, but Hana could feel that Boss wasn’t bluffing. In fact she felt a weirdly deeper connection to her after being in her shoes, in her memories, or whatever that had been. She took one of Boss’ hands in her own. “Lead the way. I’ll follow you.”

Boss looked down at their hands, then up into Hana’s eyes. Then she turned and hurried out the door, holding tight to Hana the entire way.

* * *

 

Somehow Boss knew exactly how to get to the room where their weapons were being stored. Stranger than that was the fact that the door was hanging wide open, as though someone had already been through there that very night.

“Oh my God!” Boss startled at something Hana could not see. Hana peered around her taller friend and gasped. Two Vishkar employees were sprawled out on the floor, seemingly unresponsive.

“Are they dead?” she whispered.

Boss leaned down to them. “Look at this.” She pointed to something stuck into one of their arms. Upon closer inspection Hana realized it was some sort of needle – or maybe more like a dart? “They’re not dead. It looks like they’re…asleep.”

“Sleep darts?”

Boss moved past them, over to some sort of reinforced door. It, too, was hanging open. “Everything’s still in here.”

Hana slipped inside the room. The walls were made of a reinforced steel, like a walk-in safe. Their weapons, barring her mech, which was chained to the far wall, were displayed prominently in the middle – way too prominently. Boss clearly had the same apprehension about it as Hana. She lifted an arm to block Hana from moving closer, then took a step forward herself. A piercing _buzz_ suddenly rang out through the room. Boss cried out as no less than six blue laser beams drilled into her from all sides. Hana jumped back. The noise was familiar, and as she followed the lasers to their source she realized they were the same wall-mounted turrets Satya had used to zap her in the elevator some weeks ago.

Roadhog stepped through the doorway, past Hana. Without hesitation he smashed each of the turrets with his massive fist. They shattered like glass all over the floor, then the shards disintegrated into nothing but tiny wisps of flickering light.

“Ow.” Boss was sprawled flat on her back. “To clarify I don’t actually feel pain, but I feel like I still get to say ow after that.”

Hana pulled her up. They started snatching up the weapons and doling them out to their rightful owners. Hana picked up the light pistol Ana had lent her what felt like a lifetime ago. It was only then that she realized Ana’s sniper rifle was not amongst the pile of confiscated weapons. A sinking feeling weighted her gut as she turned to Boss.

“Ana’s rifle isn’t here.”

Boss searched around the rest of the room. “Huh, yeah, it’s not. Think she took it already? I mean the doors _were_ open.”

Hana’s prolonged silence after that drew the attention of Junkrat and Roadhog, who were now fully armed. “What’sa matter, Deevs?” Junkrat handed her one of homemade bombs. “Want one?”

She gave it back to him. “No thanks, Junky. Let’s just get my mech.”

The mech was locked down with extremely strong chains. They were no match for the mech once Hana slipped in the back and engaged the boosters. The opposite wall, however, was indeed a match for it. She slammed head-on into the reinforced steel before she could stop the mech from propelling forward. The noise echoed all the way down the hall.

The mech shattered to pieces on impact.

Hana was dropped to the floor as her mech dissolved into a million sparkles of blue light, scattering throughout the room until they were no longer visible. Hana could only sit and stare in confusion until the revelation struck her. “They're not real.”

Junkrat limped over to her. “Whaddya mean? What’s not real?”

“They're made of that hard light stuff. Maybe everything here is made of it." Hana retrieved the pistol from the waist of her jeans. With a grunt she threw it down as hard as she could. Sure enough, the moment it struck the floor it smashed like movie glass.

“Somebody built all these fake weapons.” Boss crushed her fake machete in her fist. “Maybe this whole room. But who would–”

They froze at the sound of footsteps just outside the room. Hana slowly turned around. Satya stood stick-straight in the doorway, her organic arm equipped with some sort of white, claw-like weapon that was pointed straight at them. A visor covered her eyes, but it was translucent, allowing Hana to very clearly see the upset reflected in them.

Hana took a step back from her.

“You are violating your curfew.” Satya’s voice was even, but just barely. “You are not supposed to be out of your room at this hour.”

Boss, Roadhog, and Junkrat were all looking to Hana. Apparently she was going to be the negotiator here.

“Perhaps…you got lost in the dark,” Satya added, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than anything else. “I can escort you back–”

“Satya.” Hana spoke the other woman’s name softly, but just loud enough to stop Satya midsentence. “What did you do with our stuff?”

“It was…destroyed. Long ago.”

"Your coworkers over there were knocked out with sleep darts. Obviously _those_ were real.” Hana paused. “...Wait a minute. You saw it happen, didn't you?”

Satya fumbled for a response.

“You followed Ana, watched her take out two of your coworkers, and you knew the rest of us wouldn’t be far behind. So you hid our weapons somewhere and replaced them with these fakes. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”

“You fail to understand, Hana. You do not need weapons. They are not a part of your critical function anymore.”

“And what _is_ my function? Being the poster girl for your creepy company that brainwashes kids into serving them for life?”

“How about using us as expendable test subjects for illegal human testing?" Boss added. Junkrat and Roadhog looked to her. “Yeah, that's right. They stuck me in a cage and were trying to figure out how to replicate what happened to me in the omnium. They were going to use you guys as their first test subjects, then scoop up all the remaining Junkers in the Outback and test on them, too. They want us all dead and out of their way.”

Satya glanced between Hana and Boss. “Vishkar wants to improve the lives of displaced peoples, not eliminate them.” Satya raised her weapon again, but her arm visibly quivered. “You are lying to me. You still do not see our noble purpose and so you are trying to sway me. What you do not realize is that I was once exactly where you are. I did not know what was best for me until Vishkar opened my eyes to the truth.”

“Satya.” Hana took a slow, cautious step toward her, raising an open palm to block her weapon. “I know you think this place wants to make people's lives better. But look at us.” She gestured to the rest of the Junkers in the room. “We're miserable.”

“Because you do not know what's best for you.” Satya was unrelenting. “You've been out in the wastelands, suffering radiation poisoning, your minds are weakened–”

“Does anybody else know we're down here right now?” Hana interrupted her again.

Satya hesitated. “...Not at the moment. Why?”

In a tone barely surpassing a whisper, Hana said, “You could let us go. You could just look the other way for five minutes. We could be free, making our lives better, and nobody would ever know.”

“ _I_ would know!" That was the first time Satya had ever raised her voice that Hana had witnessed. Even she herself seemed a bit taken aback by her tone. She rested a hand on her chest and drew back a little, falling quieter after that. “How could you expect me to shoulder the burden of knowing I sent you back into the folds of chaos and disorder? That you will continue back on your path of depravity, where you will all ultimately be doomed to sicken and die?” She made direct, extended eye contact with Hana, a rarity from Hana’s experience with the woman. “Tell me Hana, would you take in a sick or wounded animal, treat it until it was only semi-well, and then toss it back to the wolves again?”

“Improving people’s lives doesn’t always mean sheltering them from every bad thing in the world.” Boss locked on to Satya, but her eyes were soft, not harsh like they could sometimes be. “My parents always did that to me. It didn’t make my life better. It just made me a big awkward loser with no friends and no life experience. And it didn’t save me from going through hell after the omnium blew up.”

Satya looked her over. Then she looked to Hana, then to Junkrat and Roadhog. “I just don’t understand,” she murmured, lowering her eyes to the ground. “You would be so much happier here. Why do you fight so hard to return to a terrible world?”

Something echoed down the hall. More footsteps. Satya turned, and her eyes widened at something unseen. She quickly waved her hands in front of her. Suddenly she, and the entire hallway for that matter, were gone. There wasn’t even a doorway anymore. Just a solid wall.

Though nobody was talking, Hana shushed the Junkers anyway and pressed herself against the wall. Boss and Junkrat joined her. She couldn’t hear much, but Satya was saying something in a low voice. She could hear another voice too, but it was too faint to make out. She heard a scuffling of feet, as if there was a confrontation, but nobody shouted, and Hana couldn’t hear any other sounds of conflict.

Hana squished herself as tight to the wall as she could, desperate to hear anything else. Boss was leaning partially _into_ the wall. Several minutes passed, and eventually no more sound met their ears. _Did they leave?_ Surely Satya wasn’t going to just leave them trapped in this tiny room with no exits, right?

Right?

They sat in deafening silence for a few more minutes. "I don't know why I trusted her." Hana eventually sank down against the wall. "Ana was right. I really shouldn't trust anyone."

Boss slid down beside her. "Don't know how much I'd trust Ana either, honestly. She took off pretty quick first chance she got."

Hana gazed down at the floor. "Maybe she's looking for us."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up for that." Junkrat lay on the floor a few meters from them, his legs stretching up the wall. "She never did jack shit for anyone at the prison."

"I don't know why I trusted her, either. Well, I mean..." She trailed off at the realization of how foolish her planned next words would sound out loud.

"Hm?" Boss tilted her head, encouraging Hana to finish.

With a sigh, Hana said, "Well I...I lost my parents when this all happened. Like, one-two punch. Both of them in a few days. I guess Ana was kind of like having a parent again."

Boss folded her arms and exhaled slowly. "I didn't know it was like that. Sorry, Hana."

“Whatever. Anyway, I guess that’s why I trusted her. She was always nice to me, though. I really don’t think she’d just…” Hana stopped herself. “…But what do I know. She abandoned her own daughter. Why would she stick around for _me_?”

“She abandoned her daughter?”

“I guess she, like, faked her own death to get out of the military or something. She was apparently hiding out in the Outback when those idiots blew up the omnium.”

Roadhog, who had been sitting at the far end of the room, got up then. With some degree of viciousness he slammed his fist into the wall where the doorway once was. The wall shattered.

“Roadie, what’re you doin’?” Junkrat was on his feet in a second, hobbling to his friend’s side. “Every damn bloke in this place probably just heard that!” Ignoring him, Roadhog lumbered down the hall. “Hey, wait for me, big guy!”

Hana knew she should follow them – strength in numbers and all that – but she was having trouble mustering the will to get up. They were just going to run straight into the middle of more fighting, like those men they fought for the boat way back when. More people might die. And now she didn’t even have Ana.

“Hey.” Boss reached out to her with an open, inviting hand. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sure she’s looking for us right now.”

Hana laid her hand in Boss’ palm, but made little effort to pull herself up. This left the two of them awkwardly linked together, neither making a move.

“I don’t know why,” Hana mumbled, “but I had this stupid idea that I was gonna be able to convince Satya to come with us. That we’d all leave as a group, break her out of this awful place. She’s not a bad person.”

Boss frowned. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to do that, Hana. You saved me, but not everyone’s gonna be as open to it as I was.”

“No, I know she won’t go.” Hana finally got to her feet. Boss’ hand was ice cold, but she so sorely needed the human contact at that moment that she held on long after she probably should have let go. Boss didn’t seem to mind. In fact she just sort of stood there, the two of them staring at each other for a long time.

“Well,” Boss said with a modest shrug, “you’ve got me.”

“One good thing I guess.” Hana smirked. “I’d probably go crazy traveling with no one but guys.”

“Ugh, try majoring in Engineering. Made Junkertown look like a gender-balanced utopia.”

Hana giggled. “I was going to start uni in the fall for Media Design. I wanted to make video games. So I probably would have been in the same situation.”

“Wait, where were you going? Like, what school?”

“’Darwin University’? I only got to visit it once, but it was the only school even remotely close by, so–”

“That’s where I go! Or, uh, went.”

Hana was tempted to talk more – God, she’d been so lonely trapped with nothing but Vishkar people for a month – but they had to keep moving. She took a step toward the smashed-open doorway. Boss stayed right beside her.

Satya really was gone. In fact the entire floor was eerily silent. Hana crept down the hall, straining her ears for any sort of sound. All she picked up were her own footsteps. Even Boss barely made a sound when her boots touched down. Dread memories crept up on Hana. It was the quietness. The silence of having nothing but her own thoughts to listen to. Between the weeks of it in the wasteland right after the explosion and the near-month of it in her soundproof Vishkar room, silence no longer held anything but bad associations in her mind.

Finally a blessed sound carried to her ears. Something was humming, like an appliance running or something. It must have been in one of the rooms up ahead. Hana perked up and immediately headed toward it.

“Whoa, Hana, where are you going?” Boss whispered as she nevertheless followed her.

Hana halted in front of one of the open doors near the end of the hall. Boss practically smacked into her. They both stared into the room. Inside Satya sat, perfectly poised, on the same stool she had manifested the day Hana met her. She was facing away from them, her attention instead on some sort of glowing blue portal projecting up from an apparatus that abstractly resembled a lotus flower. Junkrat and Roadhog were nowhere to be seen.

Hana and Boss exchanged a look.

Satya sat up straight and tall, still facing away from Hana and Boss. "No one ever desires Vishkar’s help." She turned just enough to glance at them over her shoulder, exposing only one eye to them. "Why?"

The noise she’d heard was coming from the strange blue and white machine. In the hall it had been faint, but in the silence of the tiny room it felt almost deafening. Hana tried to put together a response, if for no other reason than to eliminate the silence between the three women.

“I don’t want to be the cutesy mascot of your company. Those days are over.”

“And, you know, they were planning on testing on us like lab animals,” Boss murmured.

Satya’s shoulders drooped just slightly. “I do not always agree with Vishkar’s methods. They believe the end justifies the means. Sometimes that involves sacrificing innocent lives.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Boss’ tone was sharp. Hana lifted a hand, trying to diffuse the other girl. She knew Boss could have a temper, and that would get them nowhere here.

“No. That’s why I let your friends go.”

Every argument Hana had planned to make dried up on her tongue. “What?”

Satya finally stood up and faced them. Still uncertain just what was going on, she and Boss both stood as tall as they could and attempted to face her down. It was pretty laughable, since Satya must have had at least ten centimeters on Boss and more than twenty on Hana.

She gestured to the glowing blue device that was now behind her. “Your friend, the old woman, she confronted me. She demanded to know where you were.” Satya didn’t specify who “you” was meant to be, but her gaze flicked over Hana when she said it. “She was armed, yet she did not attack me. Still, I had no choice but to send her away.”

“Away? Away to where?”

“And then your other friends…all so very aggressive…” She glanced down at the claw-like weapon in her hand. “Yet they did not hurt me, either. Perhaps they have learned something from their time here.”

“What did you do with them??” Hana took a menacing step toward her. Satya ran her artificial hand over the surface of her weapon, ignoring Hana. “Satya!”

Satya lifted the weapon slowly. A glowing blue light manifested between its prongs. The light expanded, then arced out toward Hana and Boss. Hana hissed as a bizarre sensation pulsed through her body. Before she could react any further she realized she suddenly was far too weak to fight back. It was as if her energy were being sucked right out of her body.

“I am sorry we could not help you more.”

Boss tried to rush Satya, but it was obvious she was too weak to do much. Satya caught her arm and spun around, pushing her up against the glowing blue machine. Boss grabbed for its edges, but lost her grip as Satya pushed her clean through it. Boss did not emerge behind the device or anything. She simply disappeared.

Hana stumbled backward. Her legs gave out under her from whatever kind of energy drain Satya had used on her. She crawled desperately away, but of course did not get far. Satya picked her up with her synthetic arm and dangled her a few inches off the ground. They stared directly into each other’s eyes for a moment. Then Satya forced her through the mysterious portal as well.

Hana felt herself fall. It was as if she were being dropped off a cliff or something. But a split second later she hit a soft surface – actually, it was grass. A lot of grass. She rubbed her head and rolled over onto her stomach. She was…outside. The first purple light of dawn was just breaking over the horizon. She seemed to be on some sort of hill, and it overlooked a massive city split by a wide, winding river.

“Ugh.” Boss sat up a few meters away from her. “Holy crap. I haven’t been outside in weeks.”

“Me neither. Did she, like, let us go?”

“Deevs! Boss! Hey!”

Hana scrambled to her feet at the all-too-familiar voice behind her. Sure enough, Junkrat and Roadhog were sitting on the grass. Or at least they had been until Junkrat caught sight of Hana – then he was up and running immediately toward her. She hadn’t recovered enough energy to really run yet, but she got to her feet just in time for Junkrat to grab her up into a smothering hug.

Once the slight oxygen deprivation from Junkrat’s chokehold wore off she noticed someone else approaching her. “ _Ana!_ ” She dropped out of Junkrat’s arms and leapt on the old woman next. Ana smiled as her powerful arms held Hana tight. “I didn’t know what happened to you! I thought you left without us…”

“I would not leave you like that.” Ana’s voice was soft, a subtle contrast from her usual starkness.

Hana pulled back just enough to look at Ana’s face. “So you came across Satya and demanded to know where we were?”

“’Satya’, was that her name? I was about to knock her out with a sleep dart like I did two of her coworkers.” The old woman chuckled dryly. “But I heard her speak to you, and how she seemed conflicted in her loyalties. She was actually quite civil when I spoke to her. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“So were you lying about not feeling well?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘lying’…I was trying to open up some opportunities.” Ana shrugged her bony shoulders. “I wasn’t expecting a sudden power outage.”

Boss grinned sheepishly. “That was me.”

“I assumed it was one of you, for sure.”

“But you’re okay?” Hana pressed. “I was really worried.

Ana nodded. “I’m sorry, child. I didn’t realize you were going to hear about my claim.”

Hana stood on her tiptoes to peer over Ana’s shoulder. A massive building pierced the sky at the top of the hill, a super modern-looking facility amidst the more traditional-looking houses in the city below. A few meters up the wall sat a glowing blue device identical to the one Satya had pushed them through. Some sort of teleporter?

“She teleported us out of Vishkar.” Hana stared up at the building for a long time. Near the teleporter she swore she caught a flash of movement. Sure enough, as she squinted in the dim dawn light she spotted someone watching them from out a nearby window. Even at a distance she recognized the faint blue glow of the visor over Satya’s eyes.

Hesitantly, Hana lifted a hand and waved to her. Satya disappeared from the window.

_She broke every one of her convictions for us. Vishkar will probably kill her if they find out she was responsible for us escaping._

“And guess what?” Junkrat hurried over the hill. Hana tore her eyes away from the window and followed him. In the shadow of Vishkar’s main building sat a surprisingly-antiquated dumpster. Junkrat popped it open and climbed up into it, and suddenly their weapons started flying out of the garbage. Several of Junkrat’s frag grenades detonated on impact, starting tiny fires in the grass that Hana snuffed out with her boot. He also flung out Hana’s gloves and leather jacket with the shoddily-embroidered Junker logo one of the lady Junkers at the prison had stitched onto the back for her. Hana caught them and threw them on.

Roadhog seemed pleased when his pig mask landed in the pile. He quickly strapped it on, but Hana noticed he tested it first, probably to make sure it was actually his old leather one and not a crappy hard light replica.

A groan of rusty metal spurred her attention back to the dumpster. Junkrat was attempting to move something behind it. Hana looped around and joined him, then gasped. “My mech!” The rusty machine lay sprawled out on the ground, as if it had been dragged and discarded there as quickly as possible. Hana immediately crawled into it and checked it out. Everything seemed to be working fine – the two joysticks and guns, at least. Hana reluctantly tapped the boosters. The mech flew forward about ten meters before she was able to stop it again. She ended up back on the slope of the hill near Boss and Ana.

There was a button on the dashboard that she didn’t recall ever seeing before. It was a simple round button with a picture of a weirdly-shaped hexagon with a bunch of smaller hexagons inside it. Drawing back hesitantly, Hana reached forward with one finger and lightly pushed the button. With an odd noise a shield of blue-green light projected itself out in front of her. “Whoa!”

“Holy crap, what was that?” Boss was all over it in a second. “Do it again!”

This time Hana held the button down. The shield stayed up as long as she held it. Boss reached out and touched it. “Ooh, it’s tingly.”

Of course next thing everyone else was touching it, too. After a while it disappeared, even with Hana holding the button.

“Where did this come from? Was Vishkar messing with my mech?” It seemed to be made out of the same type of light material as the things Satya made.

Something fluttered to the ground from Satya’s teleporter. The teleporter then collapsed on itself and disintegrated into nothing.

Ana collected whatever had fallen. It turned out to be an assortment of papers and a manila envelope. Hana steered the mech over to her. “What’s that?”

Ana leafed silently through the pages. Hana moved to stand beside her so she could read over her shoulder. The majority of the papers were written in Hindi and thus meant little to any of them. However there were some portions of the file that did not need words – like the many candid pictures of Hana, both as a filth-covered arrestee and as a cleaned-up prisoner of Vishkar. “Oh my God, that is so creepy.”

“Surely Vishkar has digital copies of all of these files,” Ana murmured. “Her giving them to us is more symbolic than anything.”

Every one of them had a file, though Ana’s was oddly sparse. Hana wished so badly that she could read what they said. There must have been some reason Satya gave them the paperwork.

“Oh, Hana.” Ana held up a picture. Hana made a face. It was an old picture of her pulled from her APM.tv account. In it she was smiling and making a peace sign, wearing her signature pink headset and painted-on pink whiskers on her cheeks. It was a fairly common picture of her, being her profile picture and all. Unsurprising that they found it.

Junkrat appeared behind them. “Ah, Hana, is that you??”

“…Yes.”

“Aww, you look bloody adorable!”

“Shut up.”

“Too clean though. I just wanna rub some dirt all over her face.” Junkrat cackled. “Then she’ll be the D.Va _I_ know.”

Ana pulled a small scrap of paper from between two larger sheets. This one had an inset picture of Boss smiling, in what looked to be some sort of school picture. Hana only needed to scan the first few lines before she realized what she was looking at.

Boss must have noticed her change in expression. “What?” She headed over to them. “What’s in there?”

Hana reached out of the mech and took the paper from Ana. She read it over again. “It’s…your obituary.”

Boss faltered. “Oh.”

“Vanessa Nadège Calgori, 22, of Bakewell passed away Wednesday morning, one of thirteen human casualties in the explosion of the Northern Outback omnium. Vanessa was the loving daughter of James and Roseline Calgori. She was attending Darwin University for a degree in Engineering, and was set to graduate in the Spring.”

With seemingly no provocation, Roadhog suddenly pushed past them and started stomping off down the hill. Junkrat immediately pursued him, asking where he was going in such a hurry. He eventually came to a stop a short distance away. Junkrat practically crashed into him.

With everyone staring curiously at him, he turned around and presumably leveled them with a stare of his own, though the mask hid all traces of emotion that could have been read from it. Then in a hoarse, husky voice, as if rusty from disuse, he said, “Weren’t tryin’ to kill a bunch of kids.”

“Holy crap, you talk??” Hana had never ever heard Roadhog speak. She’d assumed he couldn’t.

“He talks to me sometimes.” Junkrat turned his full attention on Roadhog. “Whadd’ya mean, pal?”

Roadhog shook his head.

“Wait a minute.” Boss took an uncertain step toward them. “How do you know what they were trying to do? You – wait. You weren’t… _involved_ , were you?”

“Perhaps we can discuss this later?” Ana cast a wary glance up at Vishkar’s many-windowed wall. “When we’re safer?”

Boss ignored her. “You son of a bitch – you were with the ALF, weren’t you?! You killed all my classmates! You killed _me_!” She ran at Roadhog and hurled her fist into his stomach. Her blow bounced right off him, doing seemingly no damage at all.

Before anything else could transpire Hana grabbed Boss up in the clutches of her mech and started hurrying down the hill. “Put me down!” Boss shrieked. “That asshole’s gonna _pay_!”

Junkrat tilted his head. “Oh yeah, you said before you were with those blokes! I can never remember stuff like that.”

Hana carried her writhing, screeching friend all the way down the hill and into the start of some thin woods separating the Vishkar property from the rest of the city. Ana and Junkrat followed close behind. Roadhog lagged a stretch behind them all.

“So where are we goin’ now?” Junkrat eventually asked. “I don’t have a bloody clue where we are.”

“We’re, uh, somewhere in India.” Hana lifted Boss up in the air to be heard by Junkrat over her yelling. “I guess we could start our crime spree here?”

“Aw, yeah. There’s a ton of good shit to steal in India.” Junkrat rubbed his hands together. “That Vishkar lady’s gonna wish she never let us go. Hahaha!”

Hana looked to Ana. As usual, she did not seem pleased at their talk of becoming criminals. But this time she did not vocally protest, so Hana assumed maybe she was warming up to the idea. Probably not, but a girl could dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So have Hana and the Junkers finally escaped from Vishkar's evil clutches?? Hm....we'll see....


	14. No Way Out

They knew they couldn’t stay in whatever city they were currently in. The place would soon be crawling with Vishkar employees looking for their golden girl and test subjects. Once Boss finally stopped flipping out and resigned herself to quiet stewing they were able to concoct a plan. Said plan was enacted as soon as they came across a city bus stopping to pick up passengers. It was one of those hover-buses they used in big cities. Living in Australia’s butt-crack Hana’s tiny town had largely still utilized buses with tires, though she had seen hover-buses in Busan and on her occasional trips into the Outback’s larger towns.

It didn’t take much persuading for the Junkers to gain control of the bus – the driver surrendered pretty quick once Junkrat pulled out his frag launcher. The passengers, too, all fled in terror. They didn’t have to fire a single shot to take the bus for their own.

Junkrat hopped into the driver’s seat. “Wait, you’re gonna drive?” Hana met him at the front of the bus.

“Sure, why not?”

“With a peg leg?”

He leaned down toward the gas pedal and poked at it with his prosthetic. The bus lurched forward, then stopped, then lurched again, then stopped again.

“Let me do it.” Hana pulled him out of the driver’s seat and hopped into it herself. With a small whine Junkrat sat down in the first seat behind the driver’s.

Hana had gotten her license at age seventeen, but she’d only ever driven small vehicles. Her parents had bought her an old car with tires for her eighteenth birthday, and she spent most of the time driving short routes – to school, to her friends’ houses, stuff like that.

“So…” Hana tested the pedal gingerly. “Floor it?”

Junkrat’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! Floor it!”

The other Junkers came tumbling to the front of the bus as Hana mashed the pedal to the floor. The bus flew down the busy street, weaving in and out of traffic, narrowly avoiding several pedestrians. “Woohoo!” Hana swerved around a corner. “This is fun!”

“Hana, are you trying to–” Ana’s scolding was cut off by a horn as they passed a truck that was in the middle of turning. “Are you trying to get us all killed??”

“I’m a great driver!” Hana called back. “Look, I haven’t hit a single–”

 _BANG!_ In the time Hana was turned around to respond a sidewalk vendor’s food cart flew up and over the bus.

“Let me drive.” Ana took the steering wheel from Hana.

“No, I was doing fine!”

“Hana!”

The swerved around a corner, smashing into a car and pushing it off the road. Ana seized the moment to grab the wheel from Hana’s grip and push her out of the driver’s seat. Hana loudly resisted, but her attention was pulled to the back of the bus when she heard a loud metallic noise.

Boss had disappeared, and in her place Hana’s mech was swinging its heavy metal arms at Roadhog. Roadhog was standing at the back of the bus, looming over the hunk of scrap. He hooked the mech with his chain hook and pulled it in, then started looping his chain around the machine. The mech resisted, its rusty metal scraping in protest as it fired off its pathetic little pellets at him.

“Hey!” Hana dashed over to them, struggling to keep her balance on the moving vehicle. Thankfully it was a bit easier with Ana at the helm. “Boss, stop!”

The mech continued to fire at Roadhog, eventually driving him back. He pulled out his own gun and shot the mech point-blank. It staggered backward, then collapsed to one “knee”. A series of popping sounds and a shower of sparks erupted from it. Then the mech collapsed into a pile of junk.

“My mech!” Hana knelt beside it. “Boss, what the hell?! That wasn’t yours to wreck!”

The mech’s pieces were still glowing. As Hana stared down at them she realized they had begun to vibrate as well. She gasped and stumbled backward as the hunks of metal flew back together and reassembled into their old shape. A radioactive green light flashed across its surface as it held its arms back out and seemed almost to stretch, or flex, or something. It turned to face Hana.

“I know it's horrible that the ALF killed your classmates,” Hana said, her voice softening just a bit. “They killed my parents! But I'm just… _dealing_ with it, because that's all we can do now. And besides, I think Roadhog feels bad about it. Right?” She glanced over at him. Roadhog shrugged. “...Um, he probably does. Anyway you're gonna have to get over it and work together with us if we want to get out of this mess. Okay?”

The mech remained immobile for a long few moments. Hana reached out and gingerly laid a hand on its cold metal surface. The mech sank down low, leaning forward into Hana’s touch. Then with a quiet _hiss_ , like escaping steam, Boss’ energy seeped out onto the floor of the bus. It formed back into Boss’ human shape. She sat hugging her knees on the bus’ dingy floor.

Hana held a hand out to her. Boss shook her head and kept her eyes down.

The bus swerved to one side. Hana glanced up front to find Ana and Junkrat exchanging what sounded like heated words. Before she could actually determine what was being said their words were drowned out by something else – a chorus of blaring sirens.

“Great.” Hana stood up and peered out the bus’ back window. A trio of police cars were in hot pursuit. “There’s three of them.”

“I can handle this.” Junkrat popped open one of the windows toward the back of the bus, and pushed the end of his frag launcher out of it.

“Don’t, that’s just gonna make it–” _Pop, pop, pop!_ A handful of grenades bounced out across the road. Seconds later the street was rocked with explosions. “Jamie!”

There was no way they were going to escape these brand-new-looking cars in a slow as hell city bus, but they had few options – Roadhog and Hana’s mech wouldn’t fit in any other type of vehicle without being completely exposed, and on foot they’d be caught immediately. Hana bit her lip and tried to think of something. “Boss,” she eventually asked, “is there any way you could, like, possess the bus and make it go faster or something?”

Boss averted her eyes, sweeping them low across the floor to ignore Hana.

A voice shouted something in another language over what sounded like a megaphone or some sort of giant speaker. Out the side windows Hana spotted a police copter gaining on them from the skies above. Junkrat fired his weapon madly, but it didn’t do much against an aerial threat.

“Boss??” Hana reached down and grabbed her arm. Boss yanked it free of Hana’s grip. “Now would be a good time to use some of your ghost-y powers…like, _right_ now…”

Two windows smashed as a bullet soared in through one and out another, raining glass all over the interior of the bus. It was the first of several to be fired – they were clearly aiming at Junkrat, but thankfully were having a hard time hitting him since he was ducked low in front of the last pair of seats. The bus not having tires turned out to be a blessing. Nothing for the cops to shoot out.

Boss was still largely unresponsive to Hana’s pleas. She seemed distant, as if purposely removing herself from the situation around her. “Okay, I get that you want Roadhog to die or whatever. But all the rest of us are gonna die too if you don’t at least _try_ to help.”

“Why should I care if you all die?”

For the first time since detaching from the mech Boss actually lifted her gaze to Hana’s. Her expression was guarded, but Hana had spent enough time with the other girl to tell when she was putting up a façade. It was then that the realization struck Hana. Of course Boss felt like she had nothing to lose if they all crashed and died or got shot by the police. She would be fine, and right now she must have felt like she had no one else on her side to look out for. She was poorly concealing a feeling of utter aloneness.

Hana knelt back down in front of Boss. Resting one hand on a bench seat behind the other girl, she leaned in and laid the other gingerly on one side of Boss’ face. Boss drew back a little, her eyebrows raised, but Hana pursued her. Before either of them could back out of it Hana pressed her lips against Boss’, enveloping the other girl in a chaste but sweet kiss. Boss only hesitated a moment before wrapping her arms around Hana’s wiry waist and pulling her in to deepen it. It was bizarre, Hana thought as she let Boss slobber all over her like someone who had clearly never kissed another human being before – Boss had no real taste. No real scent, either, and her skin, lips and even mouth felt chilly to the touch. She really was like a ghost. A sweet ghost, though.

When they finally parted, Boss stared into Hana’s eyes for a long moment. “I’m doing this for you,” she murmured. Her form dissolved into the floor of the bus, leaving nothing but a faint green tinge over its surface.

Hana sat back on her heels and wiped her mouth on her shirt. _That…wasn’t as bad as I’d expected._ She’d never kissed another girl before. Another check for her post-apocalypse weird list.

One of the police cars scraped up against the side of the bus. She could hear the helicopter beating the air what sounded like directly above them. _C’mon, Boss._ Hana ducked low to avoid another hail of bullets sailing through the windows. _Get us out of here._

Moments later the bus shifted into overdrive. It raced down the crowded streets as fast as a city bus could go, or possibly faster. Hana clung to a seat. Boss weaved them through traffic with amateur control over the massive vehicle, barreling into the occasional light pole and knocking over street signs.

“Ana!” Hana yelled up to the front. “Get down, you don’t need to steer it anymore!”

Ana seemed reluctant to surrender control. She quickly changed her mind when a police car came up beside them with an officer aiming out the window at her.

Another explosion sent one of the police cars spinning out and crashing into a crowd of onlookers. Hana winced. Junkrat cackled, quickly reloaded his frag launcher, and continued his assault on their pursuers.

It was becoming increasingly obvious to everyone involved they had no idea where they were going. The streets all looked the same, in a similar design to how Vishkar seemed to like everything. All things considered Boss was doing a decent job at steering them through the city, but they couldn’t read the street signs, so they had no reliable way to navigate.

As they hit a bump that may have been a felled light pole, another vehicle, a person, or anything else, Hana hunkered down on the floor and looked around at her fellow Junkers. “Guys?” When they all paused to glance in her direction, Hana cleared her throat. “Um, I just wanted to say, if for whatever reason we don’t make it out of this together…or at all…”

“Oi, Deevs, what a vote’a confidence!” Junkrat cut her off. “We’ll make it out, don’t worry.”

“I’m just saying,” she continued, raising her voice over all the sirens around them, “ _if_ we don’t make it out of here, I just wanted to say that I – I care about you guys a lot. When I thought I was never gonna see you again at Vishkar I was really sad I never got to tell you all that.” She cast a glance upward. “That goes for you too, Boss. Even if you did punch me that one time.”

Junkrat shrugged and giggled a little. Roadhog gave her a thumbs up.

Still knelt opposite Hana, Ana nodded at her. “And we care about you, Hana. Trust me, I wouldn’t be involved in a multi-car police chase in a stolen bus in the middle of India if I didn’t.” She smirked just the tiniest bit, but quickly grew solemn again. “But Junkrat is right. We shouldn’t speak so morbidly. We’ll be all right.”

It didn’t take long for more police to show up – and with bigger weapons. At the end of one street the Junkers realized the entire thing was blocked off by a police barricade. “Boss!” Hana yelled. “If you hit them we’re gonna flip over!”

Boss attempted to slow the massive bus, but with the amount of momentum they had behind them it was impossible to stop in time. They crashed through the line of police cars, pushing several along with them. The sudden impact rocked the bus hard. It was unable to make the sharp turn at the end of the street. Hana shrieked as the bus tipped over and slid across the pavement with a sickening groan, throwing them around inside. Sparks seared her skin as the metal scraped across the hot cement. The bus’ spin out of control came to a crunching end when it struck the side of a building, knocking the Junkers against what had once been the floor and was now the side of the bus.

Hana sat up and rubbed her head. “Ugh. Is everybody okay?”

Roadhog nodded. Junkrat, who had been hanging out the window when they flipped, dropped down from the side-turned-ceiling and landed beside Hana. The tips of his hair were smoldering, probably from the sparks of the impact. Hana put them out with her gloved fingertips.

Ana was sprawled out a meter away from them. Hana quickly clambered to her feet and hurried to her side. “Ana, are you okay?”

Ana sat up slowly, steadying herself with a hand on the ground. “It would take a lot more than that to kill me. But I might be getting a bit old for being tossed around in bus crashes.”

“Sorry.” Boss was kneeling on the floor near the front of the bus, her eyes downcast.

Something creaked above them. Hana glanced up. Two armored police officers were standing on top of the bus, pointing assault rifles at them.

“Uh…” Junkrat slowly set his frag launcher down. “So I guess we’re under arrest?”

Hana peered through the rear window of the bus. They were completely surrounded. “Um, unless you think we can take on like fifty armed cops ourselves…”

Hana’s mech creaked to life from where it had crash-landed at the back of the bus. “I don’t think you can do it, Boss,” Hana whispered.

One of the mech’s legs was twisted in the wrong direction, severely limiting its mobility. After a few fruitless attempts to move Boss finally gave up on it and separated from the machine.

The police descended upon them, eerily reminiscent of the Australian soldiers who ambushed them in the Outback. “Drop your weapons if you want to live.” One of the men pointed his rifle squarely at Hana’s forehead. His voice had a strange resonance to it, perhaps because of his helmet or something.

“You’re taking us alive?”

“Drop everything. Now.”

With a sigh, Hana went to pull her light pistol from her waistband and set it on the floor. Before she could, however, she heard a _pop_ behind her – and suddenly the bus was rocked by an explosion. Junkrat started firing his grenades wildly out the broken windows, scattering the police outside. Roadhog wasted no time smashing through the side of the bus with his huge, powerful hands. He tore an opening in the metal just wide enough for the rest of the Junkers to squeeze through. He kept tearing at it until he could fit through the rend himself.

Hana scrambled for her mech, but before she could get to it the mech boosted out of the hole and started firing into the crowd of police. This spurred the cops to start shooting back, and their weapons vastly outranked the Junkers’ homebrew junk. Hana laid low inside the bus as several more explosions detonated just outside of it. She resisted the reflex to choke on the smoke, desperate to remain as quiet as possible to avoid detection. The cops seemed preoccupied with Boss and Junkrat the most. Roadhog was swinging his hook around, keeping the police at a distance. She couldn’t even see Ana.

While it had appeared for a brief few minutes that the Junkers might actually have been able to turn the tide and chase off all of the dozens of cops on their tail, it didn’t take long for the police to start shooting to kill. A series of machine gun pops startled Hana back into the bus. When the dust cleared she spotted Junkrat lying on the ground, clutching his side. Blood welled between his fingers.

“Jamie!” Without thinking she made a mad dash for him. As if waiting for just that moment, something seized her by the collar of her jacket. She tried to scream but was cut off by a gloved hand over her mouth. She chomped down with her jagged fangs, but whatever material the gloves were made of was resistant to her bite. The assailant dragged her into the crowd of heavily-armed police.

Through the crowd she caught sight of Roadhog grabbing Junkrat off the ground and running away from the police with him. One of the officers unloaded a clip of bullets in their direction. To Hana’s shock Boss materialized in front of them, absorbing all of the bullets herself. Equally shocking, Roadhog picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and took off with her as well.

“Mmff!” Hana squirmed as inhumanly strong arms dragged her away from the center of the action. Suddenly something jabbed into the tender flesh of her neck. She screeched as it pressed deep into her, cold and sharp. She recognized the sensation from all the shots she’d had to get as a kid – it was some sort of needle.

For a few seconds she was all right, and she continued to fight back – then whatever they injected her with must have hit her system. Her brain started to fog, and somewhere inside of her an inner voice began to encourage sleep. _You’re so tired – no I’m not! Your body needs a rest. The situation will get sorted out without you. No, no…I’m not… It’s okay, Hana. You deserve a nap._

The muscles throughout Hana’s body were warm and tingling pleasantly. Whoever was holding her eased their grip just enough for her to sink limply into their arms and let her head loll forward. Her vision was slowly clouding and her hearing was dropping out. Everything sounded far away, like she was so far from everything bad and dangerous. Like she was at least momentarily safe, and able to rest.

Her battered body started to give in to the void of unconsciousness they had brought upon her. Just as her eyes were drooping closed her brain managed to register the sight of Roadhog disappearing with Junkrat and Boss, and finally she caught a glimpse of Ana in the distance, seemingly leading them to an escape route. Hana reached one hand weakly out toward them. _G-guys…help…_

They didn’t even look back her way. Instead the four of them took off together, fending off the police who chased them down with Ana’s rifle and Roadhog’s scrap gun.

Hana closed her fist weakly. Her vision finally faded to black, and she collapsed deep into an induced, almost comatose sleep.

* * *

 

_They…left me._

Hana’s body apparently wasn’t ready to wake just yet, but her mind was starting to come alive again.

_They abandoned me._

Maybe they were getting away so they could regroup and rescue her from…wherever she was now. Maybe they had to flee. Their group _was_ severely outnumbered and outgunned.

Or maybe their own survival was more important to them than the life of a girl they hardly knew. Hana wouldn’t be able to blame them. She would probably do the same thing.

“ _Hana?_ ”

A voice called out to her from a million miles away. It was murky, as if she were underwater and they were calling to her from somewhere high above the surface. It was not a voice she recognized.

She forced her heavy eyelids open, wincing at the piercing light that stabbed her eyes. As she began to regain awareness of her body she quickly realized she was strapped down. A blinding light was aimed directly at her, the source of the pain to her eyes. She turned her head to discover she was in some sort of hospital room, or at least a room full of medical supplies, and that the thing she was strapped to was an operating table.

A series of wires ran from her right arm to a bunch of machines at her side, one of which she recognized as an IV drip. “Huh…?” Her voice was hoarse. Her throat was bone dry. How long had she been out?

A man stepped up to the table and spoke her name again. Hana’s heart rate accelerated, as noted by the monitor beside her. She did not recognize him specifically, but his uniform was undeniable in origin.

“Our Satya can be quite...naive,” he said. “But you know that, don't you? You played on it. You _used_ her. You convinced her you were good people who were unjustly imprisoned, rather than what you are – murderers. Thieves. A group of wastes of human life.” He scoffed. “Thankfully you made your own argument against yourselves by going and immediately doing what you did. Satya has seen the error of her ways, and she will not be helping you again.”

“Wh…” Hana desperately tried to wet her mouth enough to form comprehensible words. “Why…do you want me… _so_ bad…?”

“You couldn’t possibly understand, being that you’re a terrible person.” The man spoke the cutting words casually, as if he wasn’t putting her down but instead simply stating a fact. “But here at Vishkar we want to _help_ people. And you are sick, Hana. Very sick. I don’t know what you’ve been through in the Outback that warped your perspective of the world as much as it did, but we are going to cure you. You are going to rejoin society as a functional, efficient, and contributing member. And you’re going to help us in return. We’re going to make sure of it.”

“Where are…my friends?”

“Irrelevant. They are unsalvageable.” The man stared right into her eyes. “Not like they seemed to be too concerned for you, anyway. A whole flock of horrible birds of a feather.”

Hana coughed weakly. It took all her resolve not to rise up and take his obvious bait. “What will it take for you to let me go?” she asked instead.

“We’ll see how you are when we’re finished healing you. You may find you’ve even changed your mind. You may realize you actually want to stay here and help us mend the world.”

“Never.”

“Mhm. Well we shall see, Miss Song.”

A team of several men and women in lab coats swarmed around the table. The grogginess from whatever they had drugged her with was finally starting to wear off. Hana tugged at her restraints – they were made out of a thick metal that she surely wasn’t getting out of. “Let me go.” Her voice cracked. “Let me go!”

The man shook his head. “So selfish. You contribute nothing good to the world as you are. The only way you can help make our world a better place is by transforming yourself. Opening your mind.”

One of the women surrounding the table forced a mask over Hana’s nose and mouth. Hana whipped her head furiously to shake it off. That seemed to irritate the Vishkar personnel. One of them held her head steady while the woman re-affixed the mask.

Another man adjusted the settings on the IV pole. A rush of cold fluid began to flow into her arm. Hana writhed and fought against her restraints with every bit of strength she could muster. The Vishkar employees simply watched her. She noticed one of them was taking notes from the other side of the room.

“You’re _monsters!_ ” she shouted over the hiss of the oxygen mask. “You’re not saving anybody! You brainwash little kids like Satya and you kidnap innocent people and you…you…”

Whatever they were feeding into her veins was even more potent than the needle injection from earlier. Her limbs felt as if they were all going to sleep on her simultaneously. She fought it with every fiber of her being. “You’re all...monsters…”

The first man ran a gloved hand through Hana’s hair, gently pushing her down onto the table. “Shh.” He smiled down at her. “When you wake up you’ll see you had nothing to be afraid of. I promise.”

She began to dip back into unconsciousness again, weaving in and out of awareness of her surroundings. Vaguely she felt one of the women attach some sort of wired pads to her chest and clip something to her finger. Losing control of her fine motor skills, Hana cried out wildly, her tongue and lips like foreign entities as total numbness encroached upon her.

Her memory did not record anything after that. One minute she was resisting violently. The next minute she was lying slack on the table, breathing slowly and deeply, her last traces of consciousness slipping away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final act, Act III, begins next week! We'll learn the fate of the Junkers, as well as what's to become of poor Hana now that she's alone in Vishkar's clutches...
> 
> As always, thanks for reading! I'm excited to have surpassed the 50k word mark, making this my second-longest fic ever!


	15. Act III: Rebirth

They spent the entire day running. It was probably overkill, since the police seemed surprisingly disinterested in following them. Were they even police at all? They’d been pretty damn heavily armed for average street cops. They were more akin to the soldiers that had taken them in to Vishkar back in Australia. Boss couldn’t help but wonder if the whole thing had been orchestrated by that demon company.

In any case, said demon company now had Hana again. Boss had immediately demanded they go rescue her, but her order was countered by Ana. “It will be suicide to go when they are expecting us,” she had said. “They aren’t going to kill Hana. She’s infinitely more valuable to them alive. We’ll have to wait until their guard is down before we can get in there.”

“But what if they hurt her? What if they’re torturing her or something?”

Ana lowered her head. “There is nothing we can do. Hana must be strong on her own until we can get to her.”

Junkrat was uncharacteristically silent. Ana had tended to his bullet wounds the moment they’d decided the police were no longer an immediate threat, and he was recovering just fine, but his face was devoid of its usual maniacal grin, and his shoulders sagged as he walked. Boss had to suspect he felt at least as bad as she did about Hana. Nobody had wanted to leave her behind. There were just too many cops, and Hana was just too deep into the swarm of them for any of the Junkers to have stood a chance rescuing her. She had been bait – they were trying to lure the Junkers into the crowd of cops so they could get them all at once. Boss could only hope Hana understood why they didn’t pursue her.

“She knows we wouldn’t abandon her, right?” Her voice broke the tense silence that had settled between the remaining Junkers. They were camped out under a bridge by the massive river. Roadhog washed his filthy feet in the water while Junkrat sat beside him, knees drawn close to his chest.

Nobody responded to her. Ana was carving into her rifle with a small switchblade. Roadhog wasn’t looking at her. Junkrat looked over at her for a moment, but then resumed staring out over the water.

This was the kind of situation where Hana would start chattering away about nothing just to fill the void. She seemed to hate silence.

Boss got to her feet. “I’m going in after her.”

“Me too.” Junkrat was up and beside her in a second.

“No, I mean I’m gonna sneak in there. With my powers.”

“You really think that’s a good idea?” Ana did not look up from her rifle. “They wanted you pretty badly too, Vanessa.”

Boss stiffened at the use of her real name. “I – I can get back out of there. I can do whatever I want. I’m dead!”

Ana stood up, slinging her rifle onto her back. “Don’t be a fool. I’m too old to be babysitting a bunch of impulsive children.”

“Don’t you care about Hana?”

That seemed to tick Ana off. Her exposed eye narrowed at Boss. “We are her only chance at escape. I am _not_ throwing it away. We wait until they are no longer expecting us, _then_ we retrieve her.”

Boss folded her arms. Turning to gaze out over the river, she muttered, “Hana sees you like a mother figure. But I guess you’re not above abandoning your kids, anyway.”

She glanced over her shoulder to see if Ana was reacting to her statement. She’d expected shock or anger on the old woman’s face. Instead Ana was leaned back against the dingy cement of the bridge, staring down at the ground.

“…Shit, Ana, I’m sorry.” Boss reached hesitantly out to her. Ana moved out of her reach. “I shouldn’t have said that. I just…I really, _really_ don’t want to leave Hana with those people. They’re not just a soulless corporation. They want to experiment on people. They experimented on me. I can’t feel pain, but Hana can. They might not kill her, but I’m terrified of what they _will_ do.”

Ana wandered over to the river’s edge. She adjusted her cloak and sat down upon it. Boss glanced over at Junkrat, who was still standing and seemingly ready to accompany her on her bull-headed Hana rescue mission.

“I’m gonna go check on her, at least.” Boss pulled her leather jacket tight to her body and started to walk away. When she heard Junkrat hopping after her she paused, exhaled – then let her material form dissolve into the pavement.

_Hey! Boss, wait!_ She could hear him shouting from above, but she did not stop. Her energy raced through the streets, determined to return to the massive, ominous tower of a skyscraper she’d hoped she would never set foot in again.

* * *

 

A faint, rhythmic beeping roused Hana from her death-like sleep. She opened her eyes, blinking away the blurry coating that had formed over them. She found herself tucked into a massive, feathery bed in a room with pale pink walls and a large window that allowed a flood of sunlight inside. A beam of light arced across her pure white blanket, pleasantly warming her.

Her arm was still hooked up to some sort of monitor, the apparent source of the beeping. Hana sat up to look at it. As she did, she realized something – her head felt cold. She reached reflexively upward to comb her fingers through her hair. With a gasp, she realized there wasn’t any hair to comb through. All of it had been shaven off.

Down the middle of her scalp she felt some sort of bandage. She didn’t remember getting hurt. In fact she felt just fine.

“Ah, Hana, you’re awake!”

A familiar-looking man stood in the doorway of her room. He strode in with a small smile, quickly checking over her machine. “How are you feeling?”

“Good.” She watched him with idle curiosity. “Um, what happened to my hair?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. We needed it out of the way for the procedure.” He reached over and checked her arm, which was still tethered to the machine at her bedside. “It’ll grow back, and in the meantime one of our Architechs made you some synthetic hair that will look perfect.”

“What was the procedure for?” she asked him.

The man studied her with soft eyes. “Your brain was very sick. All that radiation...you should find that you feel quite a bit better from now on.”

She felt a strange sensation in her head, almost like a tickle. It wasn’t a bad feeling. In fact, it felt good. It felt reassuring. “You helped me.”

The man smiled at her again. “That’s what we do here.”

Through the haze of her mind somehow a memory returned to her. She recalled fleeing from Vishkar for an unknown reason. “I’m sorry I ran away,” she murmured. “I…don’t know why I did that…”

“It's all right, Hana. As I said, you were very sick. You can't be held accountable for your actions while you were that unwell.” The man reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. The tickly feeling returned, amplified this time. She actually giggled out loud. The man laughed a little. “I’m glad to see you in good spirits, in any case. You seem to be recovering quite well. I’d guess you’ll be out of bed by later today. I’d still take it easy though.”

“Oh, I can probably get up now.” Hana slipped her feet out from under the covers and prepared to get out of the bed. “I want to go check on everybo– _argh!_ ” She clutched her head and drew back into the center of the bed.

“Are you all right?” The man kept a supportive hand on her.

Hana winced, curling up tightly as she continued to hold her head. “Are – are you sure whatever you did is going to help me? I feel...not so good all of a sudden.”

"You're taxing your mind too much, too soon. Rest some more. You'll feel better when you wake."

She struggled to form a coherent thought around all the sudden shooting pain in her head. What had she been about to say? She already couldn’t remember. There was something…she wanted to check on...? What could it have been?

The pain was growing stronger. Tears stung her eyes. The Vishkar man seemed to notice this, for he helped to ease her down into the sheets again. “Try to keep your mind on simpler things. This was a very…experimental procedure, and we want to take as many precautions as possible.”

“Sorry.” She huddled back under the blankets and laid her head on the overstuffed pillows. “You’re right. I should sleep.”

The man typed something on a tablet he pulled from his pocket. Then he watched over Hana until the pain receded enough for her to drift back to sleep.

* * *

 

As it turned out Boss’ incorporeal form wasn’t exactly the most reliable method of travel. It consumed a ton of energy and distorted her perception of distance, time and space. She’d believed herself able to navigate the massive city – after all, she was just looking for the biggest building in the area. However as she traveled she quickly realized she had very much overestimated her abilities. This city was _weird_. Everything about it felt unnatural, and it was next to impossible to navigate. Even the people of the city seemed a bit lost – they just wandered from place to place with seemingly no real destination in mind.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed she had to come to the surface, so to speak, and re-materialize to maintain her already-tenuous grip on the mortal plane. She formed herself behind a couple of small buildings in an alleyway. Sliding down against the brick wall of one building, she took a few deep breaths. Tactile sensations always seemed to help ground her, so she ran her fingers down the bumpy bricks and across the rough cement. _Pull it together, body._ _I’m not ready to leave this place just yet._

It was starting to take longer for her body to re-form after each “ghost” session. Truthfully, that scared her a little. As much as she had sort of come to terms with her own death, the thought of disappearing from the mortal world forever was a frightening one. It seemed she wouldn’t even leave a body behind – since her spirit and her body were apparently one and the same now, she would most likely just fade out of existence. Never again to touch anything, or talk to anyone, or…kiss anyone…

Her cheeks warmed slightly at the memory of Hana kissing her on the bus. She wasn’t an idiot – it was obvious Hana just did it to get her to cooperate. Regardless, it was her first real kiss in her entire life. Hana was so soft and gentle, even with her sharp teeth and her rough skin. Boss buried her face in her hands, stifling a tiny giggle as the memory’s sensations played through her mind again. But her mood quickly sobered as she reminded herself of Hana’s current predicament. _We have to save her. I have to save her._

For the next stretch of the journey she slunk down the streets with her hands in her pockets, trying to blend in with the swaths of residents roaming the sidewalks. It was weird being surrounded by so many people with similar skin tones to hers. Her small town in Australia had been pretty white, and her clingy parents had kept her from traveling too many places, so she was pretty used to being not just the only Black girl, but the only dark-skinned girl at all. She never really thought she was bothered by it until right that very second, when she was out of that element.

Her parents must have been devastated when they got the news about her. They must have had a wake and a funeral and all that stuff. No body to bury. She could have returned to them once she had managed to pull herself together and stop phasing through the floor like she was in a glitchy video game, and yet she never did. She did miss them. But after being kept on the world’s shortest leash for twenty-two years, some part of her was almost a little happy to be away from them, at least for a while.

She paused at an intersection. The Vishkar building rose into view as she peered down one of the streets. _There it is._

The trip through the city continued to be long and confusing even in mortal form, and by the time she reached Vishkar the sun had all but disappeared out of the sky. That at least made it easier for her to slip onto the company’s property seemingly undetected.

Ever since she and Hana made their mysterious connection inside the Vishkar laboratory, Boss had been picking up a strange sort of feedback. It wasn’t anything she could interpret clearly, more like flashes of emotion, short bursts of memories, and other largely useless bits of information. She could only suspect they originated from Hana, because when they were separated she no longer experienced them. A part of her worried that there may be another reason Hana’s energy would suddenly drop off and be unreadable. Boss squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. _No. I can’t think like that._

Once she was close enough to Vishkar she let herself dissolve again. She passed into a wall of the building, letting her consciousness climb upward until she picked up a ripple of Hana’s familiar presence somewhere nearby. _Oh, thank God. She’s still alive._ Gravity must have still affected her in some abstract way in this form, for climbing up took a lot more out of Boss than sinking downward or moving straight forward. By the time she felt Hana’s energy strongly enough to track her down she was absolutely exhausted. Still, she pressed on, and eventually she discovered the other girl in a small room with two Vishkar employees. _There she is!_ Boss was barely able to restrain herself as she watched Hana from the walls of the oddly-homey little room.

Hana was seated in front of a vanity mirror. Boss barely recognized her – she had a full head of shining brown hair and was spotlessly clean all over. In place of her usual greasemonkey clothes she was dressed in a pink pajama top and matching bottoms with small cartoonish rabbits all over them.

“So do you like it?” A woman ran her fingers through Hana’s hair. Hana tossed it one way and then the other.

“I love it.” She giggled into her hands. “It looks perfect.”

_She must be playing along with whatever they’re trying to force her to do._ They had apparently wanted Hana for some sort of PR mascot. That must have still been the plan they were going with.

Boss felt a surge of anger as she watched the situation play out. One of the Vishkar women was applying some sort of fancy-looking lotion to Hana’s skin while the other was trimming and filing her fingernails. _Hana’s not just some cute little doll for them to play with._ She could only imagine the humiliation and annoyance the other girl must have been feeling at that moment.

“Ooh, do you guys have any nail polish? I haven’t been able to paint my nails in months.” Hana giggled again. It was a weird sound, almost more like she was being tickled than just laughing during a normal conversation. Boss could only guess it sounded funny because it was fake.

The women exchanged a glance. “I don’t think we have any on hand,” one said, “but we can definitely get you some. Hey, when you’re fully recovered maybe you can come with us and pick some out yourself.”

Hana’s eyes widened a bit. “You think I’d be okay to leave?”

“I mean, it would have to get cleared first, but I don’t see why not.”

“But what if I…” She examined her freshly-trimmed nails, keeping her eyes off both women. “What if I do something bad again?”

“Well you’re already behaving a _lot_ better than when you were sick. I think you’re on the road to recovery for real this time.”

Hana must have been extremely committed to the act. The smile on her face was so genuine Boss herself could have been fooled by it.

“Thank you all for not giving up on me.”

“Of course. That’s what Vishkar does – we help the people who need it most.”

Boss stalked back and forth inside the wall, waiting impatiently for the Vishkars to leave. It felt like they spent forever with Hana, fawning over her and praising her for every little thing she did like she was five years old. Hana seemed to be drinking it all in, grinning and giggling and going on about how excited she was to be getting back to her “old life”.

When finally the Vishkars left her alone, Hana wandered into the bathroom and started to brush her teeth. She had to pull her cheeks outward to get in around the crooked fangs sticking every which way out of her mouth. “Can’t wait ‘til these are gone,” she murmured at one point.

Boss couldn’t wait any longer. The moment Hana was finished rinsing the toothpaste out of her mouth she stepped out of the wall and whispered, “Hey, Hana!”

Hana practically jumped out of her skin.

“Whoa, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare ya.” Boss reached out to her. Hana pulled away. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t think we abandoned you–”

Hana’s expression changed quickly, from the dreamy smile she’d worn with the Vishkars to a surprisingly venomous snarl. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

The nasty tone caught Boss off-guard. “I’m – I’m here to help you. I figured we could try to find a way out of here together, and then everyone else can join us and help us…get…out…”

Hana walked away from Boss before Boss could even finish her sentence. She picked up a small device on the nightstand by a large bed. “Sanjay?” she said into the device. “I need help please.”

“What are you doing??” Boss drifted over to her side. “Why are you calling them?”

“Hi, Hana. I’ll be right up,” a male voice replied over the device.

Hana’s smile returned for but a brief moment. Then it dissolved back into a scowl.

“What’s wrong with you, Hana?” Boss tried to soften her voice a little, listening for approaching footsteps. “What did they do to you?”

Hana kept her glare fixed on Boss as she strode over to the door, apparently waiting for the man she called.

“Hana?” Boss hesitantly pursued her. “Hana, if you’re in some kind of danger, um – hold up two fingers or something, so I know?”

Hana hissed in disgust. “Since when have you ever cared if I was in danger?”

The response took Boss aback. “Since…always? We’ve looked out for each other this whole time.”

Hana faltered a moment. Suddenly she winced and ground her teeth. Her hands tangled into her hair, and she tugged at it. She remained in that position for several seconds before apparently calming down enough to speak. She uncurled from her defensive posture and straightened up to her full, albeit still tiny, height.

"I was practically dead from radiation poisoning, and you guys didn't care.” Her voice shook a bit at first, but slowly evened out. “You just wanted me to hang out with you and travel all around the world like I was fine. I was out of my mind!”

Boss had no real answer for that. It was true that they hadn’t taken her for medical treatment or anything. But _none_ of them had sought any medical attention – Boss had believed Hana was okay with, or maybe even preferred, that. “So, what, Vishkar just miraculously cured you somehow?” was all she could think to ask.

“I don't know what they did. But it helped me. I feel better than I've felt in months.”

“Okay, well if you're fine now then you can come with us. You don't need to stay here anymore, right?”

Hana turned away from her, keeping her chin high. "You know, Vishkar might want to use me as a mascot, but at least they're honest about it. And they actually helped me.” She spun around and pointed a finger at Boss. “You just want to fuck me.”

“What?” Boss drew back in disbelief. “No, no, it's not like that Hana – I mean, I like you, yeah, but that's not why I want you to come back. We all want you back!”

“You and Junkrat are both the same.” Hana folded her arms tightly over her chest. “For all I know maybe all of you just want to have sex with me. The Outback is full of weirdos.”

“Come on, that's ridiculous. Ana loves you, she doesn't want to...do that.”

Hana shrugged, her arms still crossed. “People can get pretty weird when they're messed up on radiation. Trust me, I know.”

Boss studied her for a long minute. The girl in front of her hardly even looked like the Hana she had come to know, all dolled up with her long, flowing hair settled perfectly over her shoulders.

“So what's with the hair, anyway?” she just had to ask.

“You like it?” Hana tossed it over one shoulder. It fell and spread flawlessly, almost _too_ perfect in its behavior. “This is how my hair used to look.”

“You went on and on before about short hair and how much you loved having it. Hell, you told me I should cut my locs off. You don't remember that?”

“Ugh.” Hana took a step closer to her, leveling her with a glare of disgust. “How many times do I have to tell you I was out of my mind back then? You can't take anything I said seriously.”

As much as Boss hated to admit it, Hana did look much healthier than before. Her skin had a warm glow to it, unlike the sickly sallow tone it had held the entire time they were together. It also looked to have been heavy-duty moisturized, ridding her of the rough, cracked skin the Outback's unforgiving weather had bestowed upon her. Her lips had a little more color to them, and the bags under her eyes were less starkly visible than before. The only place Boss didn't see improvement was in Hana's eyes. Although they were no longer red and running like out in the desert winds, the brightness and sharpness behind them seemed dulled. Her eyes did not sparkle like they used to, and instead were simply a flat brown with little hint of life behind them. Upon closer inspection Boss also noticed one of her pupils was slightly more dilated than the other. _Isn't that a sign of brain damage?_

“They messed with your brain,” Boss whispered, “didn’t they?”

She nodded, leveling Boss with a dull, unfocused gaze. “I told you, they fixed me.”

The door to Hana’s room beeped as its lock was undone. Boss quickly dissolved herself into the floor, but she stuck around just long enough to see a man in a white coat stride into the room and ask Hana what was wrong. Hana retreated to her bed, hugging her knees like a child. “One of the Junkers showed up in my room,” she said.” I think she wanted to hurt me.”

Boss’ first instinct was to re-materialize and immediately dispute that claim. She only barely held herself back.

“I’m so sorry, Hana.” The man’s voice was laden with over-the-top sympathy. “Are you all right?”

Hana nodded. “She made my head hurt worse though.”

“Terrible people like the Junkers have a way of making everyone around them feel horrible.” The man folded his arms. “Thank you for telling me. We’ll look into securing the building against any unwanted guests immediately.”

Hana smiled. “Thank you.”

As the man walked out of the room, Hana started giggling some more. She kicked at the bed and eventually collapsed onto her back, squirming with laughter. It still had that strange sound to it, with no real cheer or joy behind each giggle. She rolled around on the bed laughing to herself until she apparently exhausted herself of the act. At that point she shimmied under the covers and curled up into a ball, drifting off to sleep peacefully.

* * *

 

Nobody spoke much that night. Ana got a small fire going a ways downriver, on the edge of the city, and they camped out silently under the massive trees that lined the riverbank. Boss had told them all what she had witnessed. Nobody could bear to say anything after that.

It seemed they all blamed themselves for what happened. And it pretty much _was_ their fault, Boss thought. Hana was their youngest and most vulnerable member. They could have done more to protect her. They could have done _anything_ rather than running away like cowards. She knew in her heart that Ana’s plan had been sound – no one had expected them to go and perform some brain-altering procedure on Hana mere hours after capturing her, and they surely would have been captured or killed trying to get to her. Hell, if not for Ana’s medical skills Junkrat surely would have died from the bullets in his stomach. And they hadn’t even been pursuing her then.

Boss looked over at Junkrat. It was strange not to hear him rambling and cackling to everyone and no one. Instead he was just sitting quietly on the ground, tracing circles in the dirt with his peg leg. Roadhog was sitting beside him, silent as usual. Boss glanced over at him for a moment. She still couldn’t believe that bastard had been with the ALF. She wanted to hate him for it, but it was hard to channel hatred towards anything but Vishkar at the moment.

Ana was her usual elusive self, seated slightly aloof from everyone, her cloak partially obscuring her only visible eye. How had Hana managed to crack her open so easily? _Guess she just has that way about her._ Seemed like it was impossible not to love Hana. No wonder Vishkar wanted her as their poster girl.

The silence was driving her mental. She tried to think of something to say, anything to break up the void of conversation.

After staring at Ana for several long seconds she decided to ask, “What happened to your eye?”

Ana didn’t seem fazed by the sudden intrusive question. “You have to ask?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know. I’ve just always kind of wondered about it.”

“I lost it.”

“Well yeah, I get _that_.”

“Then what else is there to know?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t take the quiet anymore.” Boss prodded at the campfire with a stick. “Can we talk about…something? Anything?”

Ana shifted on the ground, drawing one leg in close to her chest. She stared into the fire for a long while. “I was shot in the eye by an enemy sniper.”

“Whoa. Seriously?”

Ana nodded. “I very nearly died. In fact, most of the world thinks I did.”

“So that’s how you were able to fake your own death?”

“Seems like telling Hana was as good as telling all of you.” She sighed and smiled just the tiniest bit, but it quickly faded. “Yes, that is what happened. At the time it felt like my only option. I don’t know that I would choose it now, but the past is in the past and I take full responsibility for it.”

“I get that.” Boss sat back on her hands. “Everyone thinks I’m dead, too. I never told my parents or anyone that I’m still around.”

“My folks prob’ly think I’m long dead, too.” For the first time all night Junkrat spoke up. He shimmied a little closer to them, but still sat on the other side of the fire. “Not that they ever gave much of a shit to begin with.”

Boss reached out and tapped his metal leg with the stick she held. “Sorry, man. That’s hard.”

“Eh.” He waved his prosthetic hand dismissively. “I didn’t need ‘em. Barely remember ‘em anyways.” He looked up at Roadhog, who was still facing away from the rest of them. “What about you, Hoggie? You got any family back home?”

Roadhog turned and stared at Junkrat. Then he slowly shook his head.

Boss had long considered herself the “ghost” amongst her friend group, but it seemed those here were all ghosts to some extent.

Hana was the lifeblood of the remaining Junkers. Without her the group felt more like a cemetery, an expanse of bodies with names and stories devoid of any actual life.

“We have to get her back,” Boss murmured.

The other Junkers nodded.

“We have to get our shit together, get to somewhere safe, find a place to hole up. Have a base ready where we can bring Hana once we have her. Then come up with a plan to actually go get her.”

“Travel will not be easy,” Ana replied. “We hardly blend in to a crowd.”

“Then we’ll be really damn careful.” Boss raised her voice a little. “We have time now. As much as I hate to say this, the damage to Hana is already done. We shouldn’t try to get her again until we’re _sure_ we can do it. The more we fuck up the more likely they are to punish her or hurt her as retaliation, and she’s super vulnerable right now.” She could feel her old Junker leadership persona creeping back. Someone had to lead this group of vagabonds. It might as well be her.

“Let’s try to get some sleep,” she continued. “In the morning we’ll map out where we want to try to travel to and come up with a plan from there.”

“Will it involve blowing stuff up?” Junkrat asked.

“If it helps us rescue Hana then sure. Blow up all the stuff you want.”

“All right! Rescue mission’s a go!”

Ana did not dispute Boss’ plan any further, but she didn’t say anything for it, either. Regardless, Boss tried to stay positive. It beat the hell out of dwelling on all the ways the plan could go wrong and how Hana could end up a brainwashed slave of Vishkar Corporation forever.

“All right,” she said. “We’ll set off in the morning, then.”


	16. The Wrong Side

For a while after Vishkar’s procedure Hana had felt almost deliriously overjoyed with everything around her. She spent hours watching the holovid, having no idea what anybody was saying but for some reason finding it highly amusing. Vishkar also set her up with a gaming PC and let her pick out over two dozen games on the company’s dime. They even hung around with her while she was gaming, asking questions and showing what felt like genuine interest in her favorite pastime. It all made her so excited that sometimes her head would start to ache, forcing her to go calm down in her room until she felt better.

As time went on, the effects of whatever Vishkar did seemed to level off somewhat. It was a good thing, Hana decided, because it reduced her days from unending manic ecstasy to a general feeling of overall goodness. It was a pleasant existence, made only better by Vishkar’s promises of fame and public adoration to come.

She couldn’t imagine why she’d ever wanted to live like a Junker when her lifelong dream had been to become a star.

Just thinking about the Junkers made her feel sick now. In fact, thinking about anything from her past life gave her that sick feeling, and often brought on a headache as well. In the back of her mind she occasionally picked up a niggling feeling, like something was trying to venture to the forefront of her mind, but it made her nauseous to dwell on it for too long. It was much easier to just think about positive things. And Vishkar had no qualms helping her out with that.

 She was in the process of doing her makeup one morning when someone knocked lightly on her door. “Come in,” she called, carefully blotting the faintest bit of blush onto her cheeks. The door opened, and she heard heels lightly click their way inside. She glanced into the mirror to discover it was none other than Satya standing behind her.

“Oh, hi Satya! Man, it’s been so long – I thought you quit or something.”

“I would not do that. And hello.” She created a seat for herself beside Hana. “How are you? I have heard you are…reforming.”

Hana nodded. Then, furrowing her brows, she said, “Honestly, you should never have let me go in the first place. But I know I convinced you to do it. I didn’t know any better.”

Satya folded her arms. “I acted foolishly. I let myself get caught up in your group’s madness when I should have been the responsible one, the one looking out for all of you. I am sorry, Hana.”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad I’m not still on the run with those guys. They never cared about me.”

Satya bit her lip. She said nothing in response.

“So,” Hana eventually said, “did you hear? Vishkar’s going to go public with me soon. They’re gonna try to get me all sorts of interviews and stuff. I’m gonna be famous again.”

“How exciting!” Satya clasped her hands together. “I am sure your family will be ecstatic to discover you are not only alive, but quite well.”

Hana hesitated. “My…family…”

Satya’s small smile disappeared. “I misspoke.”

Hana bit her lip. “I…I can’t even remember them. I think…they’re dead.” She winced as her brain punished her for dwelling too long on the past. “I don’t think I have a family to go back to.”

Satya touched her lightly on the shoulder. “Vishkar is your family now. As it is mine.”

Hana stared at Satya’s metal hand as it made contact with her shoulder. “Do you ever see your parents?”

“Occasionally. They still live in the inner city, which I am not fond of traveling through. And as I said, I view Vishkar as my true family.” She paused, as if deliberating whether or not to elaborate. “Parting ways with my parents was mutually beneficial for all involved,” she finally said. “I was able to find a place to flourish, and they no longer had to divide their meager earnings between my brother and I.”

“You have a brother?”

Satya nodded. “He was quite young when I left home. Only five years old. So I do not feel I know him all that well.”

Hana smirked at her.

“What?”

“I could totally tell you’re a big sister. You just have that big sister way about you.”

“Do I?”

“Definitely.”

Satya smiled but for a moment – it faded as quickly as it appeared. For a second Hana swore she could detect a change in her eyes, a flare of emotion. She shifted her gaze away from Hana, running her organic fingertips across her synthetic arm.

“I always wanted a sibling,” Hana continued, the silence bugging her for some reason. “I used to think about what it would be like to have a big brother or sister to look out for me, or a younger one, so I could look out for them and teach them stuff.” She scratched her head, then moved into Satya’s line of sight. “But if Vishkar’s my family now, then doesn’t that make you kind of like my sister?”

“I…suppose it does.” Satya finally met her gaze again. “Are you glad to be a part of this?”

“A part of Vishkar?”

“Yes.”

The answer seemed an easy one, but for some reason Hana faltered. A part of Vishkar – that’s what she was now, wasn’t it? They had helped to heal her. They gave her a home. They got her away from the Junkers, who never showed any concern for her health – right? Boss and Junkrat didn’t care, they just wanted her sexually. Roadhog didn’t care about her. Ana…

“Hana!” Satya caught her as Hana doubled over and nearly fell out of her chair. She cried out as the paralyzing pain deep in her head prevented her from thinking clearly. Satya held tight to her, keeping her steady. “Are you all right? Do you need medical attention?”

Hana couldn’t speak for some time – the pain was all-consuming. All that could pass from her lips were moans. Satya led her over to her bed, then helped her to take a seat on its soft bedspread. She stayed with her while Hana hugged her knees and shivered, pleading internally for the agony to pass. It had been this bad a few times before, but usually not for this long. It lasted for such a long time that Satya eventually sat down on the bed beside her and simply waited it out with her.

The pain distorted Hana’s perception of time. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours that passed with her curled up, crying, clinging to Satya for some sort of grounding. Fortunately, for however long it took, relief eventually came. The pain subsided, and in its place flowed a sensation of pure euphoria. The ecstasy faded quickly, but was soon replaced by a wonderful, wonderful numbness. A calmness. And then it was back to her usual, yet source-less, joy.

She looked up at Satya with a serene smile on her face. “I’m happy to be a part of Vishkar,” she said, her tone floaty and dreamlike.

Satya’s response did not match what Hana would have expected. She felt good, and she was telling Satya she was happy – shouldn’t Satya be happy to hear that? But the woman did not look happy. In fact she looked arguably more distressed than when Hana was in screaming agony just before that.

“Hana,” she said, still keeping a light grip on one of Hana’s wiry arms, “you said Vishkar cured you?”

Hana nodded, still smiling.

“What did they do?”

* * *

 

“I think Satya is mad at me.”

Sanjay looked up from his computer screen. “Hm?”

Hana walked around to face him. His office was small and a bit cluttered, very much contrasting the majority of Vishkar. On his desk sat a few framed photographs of him with a couple of small children and a woman.

“I don’t know. She asked how you guys cured me and when I told her she got all weird and left.”

Sanjay sat back in his chair. “You’ll find that she sometimes has odd reactions to things. It isn’t you.” His tone was casual, but his eyes were alert and fixed on her.

“You don’t think she’s mad at me, then?”

“Not at all. I will speak with her about it, though. This should be…addressed.”

He got up from his desk as if to leave, but before he could Hana spoke up again. “Hey, Sanjay?”

“Yes?”

She stared at the photographs on his desk. “Do you consider Vishkar your family?”

He searched her face, as if trying to puzzle out where she was going with her question. “In a way, I suppose. Why?”

“Satya says you’re her family. Mine now, too.”

“Oh. Well of course. Yes, we’re a family here.”

“Are you sure?” He didn’t sound very convinced of his own words.

“Absolutely.”

“Okay. I believe you.”

Sanjay avoided eye contact with her after that. It seemed a lot of the Vishkar employees did that. Maybe Hana still looked bad from her time in the Wasteland and they didn’t want to be rude and stare at her. She’d probably never really be beautiful again. She couldn’t understand how the Junkers had thought she was – _stop. Stop thinking about them, you’ll get sick again._

She managed to stop her train of thought before the pain in her head grew to anything significant. One last, fleeting thought passed through her mind though – a memory of someone holding her, hugging her, spinning her around like a playful big brother. _Jamie..._

She missed him so much. She missed all of the Junkers–

Clutching her head, she hurried out of Sanjay’s office. He called after her, but she just kept going.

_I thought I was cured. Why is my brain acting like this?_

* * *

 

They spent what must have been close to two weeks on the run from Vishkar. The Indian winter was thankfully mild, so they didn’t have to worry about freezing or overheating to death out in the elements. However that was only a mild comfort in the long run – they were still starving, sleep-deprived, and on constant alert for any signs of Vishkar or the police.

In a laughable twist Boss determined she was probably in the best shape among the remaining Junkers – she’d grown accustomed to not eating or sleeping. Perks of being dead, she supposed.

Boss had originally planned to scout Vishkar out for entry points, but found that she couldn’t get near it. There was something disrupting her energy flow, the only thing keeping her tethered to the mortal plane – it was the same as when they’d had her in that laboratory tank. She and her powers would be of no use to Hana, it seemed. So instead she became the round-the-clock lookout for the rest of the Junkers. They spent their nights sleeping in alleyways, under overpass bridges, and under trees by the river. Every night they tried to formulate a plan, and every night it ended in nothing but frustration – and, in some cases, in fighting. Junkrat especially butted heads with Boss. He was firmly of the belief that they should simply blow Vishkar out from the inside with his stupid homebrew explosives. “That’s not going to get Hana to come with us, dumbass,” Boss would repeatedly point out. “Vishkar made her think we’re dangerous. We can’t just prove them right.”

It seemed they would never make any headway – nobody could come up with a good plan. Hana remained locked away in her tower while her idiots in shining armor repeatedly failed to help her.

Then, one morning, everything changed.

A faint buzzing noise caught Boss’ attention while the others slept in their claimed alleyway. She looked up to discover a small drone descending above them.

“Guys,” Boss whispered. The other Junkers slowly roused from their sleep. “Something’s up.” She nodded in the direction of the drone. Ana was on it in a second. With one shot from her DIY silenced rifle the drone exploded into a shower of sparks and scrap. One part of it hit the ground with a _clang_ – then said part began to glow.

“Stay back.” Boss held an arm out in front of the others. “I don’t know what it’s doing.”

A blue light burst forth from the object. It formed into a solid, three-dimensional shape. A hologram projector? Boss was just leaning in closer to investigate it when it revealed itself completely.

“Vanessa Calgori, right?”

Boss startled as the hologram took on the shape of a woman. Her hair was half shoulder-length, half shaven, and the shaven side of her head was covered in glowing stripes. She was dressed in a long coat with a high collar and gloves with sharp points on the end of each fingertip. She wore a grin, and it was not a very friendly one.

Before Boss could even respond the woman continued, “You look great for being dead! What’s your secret? Wait, I know, it’s radiation exposure, right? I hear Vishkar’s gonna corner the market on that one.”

“You’re with them.” Boss stood up and hovered one booted foot over the hologram projector, ready to crush it.

“Whoa, hey!” The woman held her hands out submissively. “Why does everybody think I’m with Vishkar? You really think they’d be competent enough to recruit someone like me?”

“Who are you, then?”

The woman clasped her hands together and smiled again. “I’m a friend of Hana’s. You can call me Sombra.”

“You’re a friend of Hana’s?” Junkrat pushed his face up close to the tiny hologram. “Wait, she mentioned talkin’ to a hacker–”

The woman called up a video of Hana seated in a chair in the middle of a tiny white room, staring up at a holovid. On the screen was a figure dressed in Sombra’s clothing, her hair and face obscured by a hood and mask. Though there was no sound in the projection, it was clear they were talking. Hana’s body posture was surprisingly relaxed, as though she were quite used to communicating with the masked woman.

"I was helping her try to get out of Vishkar quietly before someone went and blew the power.” She paused for an uncomfortably long time, staring at Boss. Boss refused to confirm or deny her involvement, despite knowing that this woman most likely knew she was the one responsible.

"They recaptured her,” Junkrat piped up. “We don’t know what they did to–”

“I know what they did to her,” the woman replied.

"You do?"

"Yeah. They planted a chip in her brain that regulates her neural impulses. Basically alters her thoughts and emotions and keeps her from making certain connections in there that they don't want her to make."

A shudder coursed through Boss’ already-cold body. _I knew it was something like that._ That didn’t make it any less horrifying to hear, though. “So that’s what it was.”

"Yeah. Honestly I don't know how anybody can't tell when they’re showing her off to the media. You can see it in her eyes." She waved a gloved hand in front of her own face. "They're dead."

"Wait, they’re already showing her to people?"

"Oh yeah. I have a file of it somewhere around here..." She hummed to herself as she fished around somewhere off-camera. "Oh, here."

A series of hologram images appeared around her. The largest one had Hana in an expensive-looking dress sitting opposite what looked to be a news interviewer or something. The images around it were similar, Hana posing for pictures with Vishkar employees, screenshots of news stories about her, and so on. Boss leaned in close and stared at Hana for a long time. It was true. Her eyes did look dead.

Boss swallowed. "Is there anything we can do for her?"

Sombra tapped her chin with her disturbingly long-nailed gloves. She was still grinning. "Well, lucky for you re-wiring by technological means is the easiest to undo – especially for me. I'm guessing Vishkar used it because it's quick and has immediate effects, and they want to get their reputation out of the toilet as fast as possible after I trashed it last time."

Boss was tempted to ask what exactly that last part meant, but Hana was her immediate concern. "So you can undo it? She'll be fine after?"

Sombra turned away in her chair. "Whoa, hold on a minute. One, no guarantees she'll be fine. They did perform brain surgery after all, and I'm _pretty_ sure they're not qualified surgeons. And two, I never said I'd definitely do it."

"Isn't that why you came to us?"

"I came to you to see what you can offer me. Maybe we can make a trade."

Junkrat’s eyes were wide, imploring, as he stared at Boss. "What kind of trade?” she asked. “We have practically nothing to our names."

"That, my friend, is where you are wrong." Sombra spun back around and leaned in close to the camera. "You have _information_. A _lot_ of it. And I want it all."

Boss glanced around at the other Junkers. Ana was stoic as usual, revealing nothing. Junkrat and Roadhog were just watching Boss, Junkrat fidgeting a little.

"What do you mean by 'all' of our information?"

“I mean you tell me everything you know. Tell me about the Junkers. Tell me about Vishkar. I'm sure Captain Amari has some interesting stories to tell at the very least.”

Boss blinked. "Who's–" She turned to Ana, who was staring intently at the hologram. Her exposed eye did not reveal much emotion, but her posture was tense now.

“The world's most elite sniper, reduced to a common criminal.” Sombra chuckled. "Isn't it funny how life works like that?"

“Seems like you already have your fair share of information,” Ana replied, still not letting any emotion seep into her face or voice.

“Are you kidding? I can _never_ have enough info.” Sombra's malicious grin returned. "Don't worry Captain, I promise I won't tell anyone that you’ve been evading your taxes for years.”

Ana clicked her tongue. "Right. Of course you’re to be trusted."

"So you really won't help Hana unless we all disclose everything to you?" Boss' shoulders drooped. That was such an unfair trade. This woman knew they had no options and was taking full advantage of it.

“I know, isn't that awful of me? Maybe I should reconsider and have some sort of moral epiphany.” She pursed her lips, resting one hand under her chin. “Hm...nah. I'm still gonna do it.”

“Some friend of Hana’s you are,” Boss muttered.

“Hey, friends do for each other. And Hana screwed me over by letting herself get caught. She still owes me _her_ share of information. Which reminds me…”

Boss crossed her arms and waited.

“She’s part of this deal, too. So once I fix her brain I get to pick it as much as I want. You guys are gonna give consent for her.”

“No way.” Boss shook her head vehemently. “She’s been through enough. Leave her alone.”

Sombra chuckled. “Jeez, awfully protective of someone who thinks she hates you now.” She cast a glance around at all of the Junkers. “Fine. Here’s my condition for her, then: Someday, if I ever need a favor done – someone to do some dirty work, create a distraction, lift a heavy box for me, whatever the heck I need at the time – I can call on the Junkers to help me out. That includes Hana.”

Boss swallowed. That was a lot to commit to, especially to someone she didn’t know in the least. And to commit Hana to it, too…

“How do I know you’ll even help her? What if we tell you everything and then you just fuck off?” Boss sat back, keeping her arms crossed tightly over her chest. “We don’t even know you.”

“No, you don’t.” Sombra’s expression sobered, her grin melting away into a look of seriousness for the first time in their conversation. “Here’s the thing, though. Full disclosure, Vishkar is trying to take over my home. I’m going to do _everything_ I can to stop them. That includes taking away their precious mascot, and using every bit of info I have against them.”

That gave Boss pause. She had wondered before if Vishkar had tormented groups other than the Junkers. Apparently this was her answer. “So you want our information to help stop Vishkar from hurting anyone else.”

“Well, that and I’m just a nosy bitch in general.” Sombra’s smile returned. “But yeah.”

Boss sighed. “Are you guys okay with this? Ana?” She paused on the old woman beside her. She suspected this Sombra would not be getting much in the way of truth out of Ana. Boss was planning on lying about most things herself, and she was sure Sombra was expecting that. The only thing she was going to be honest about was how Vishkar had treated her while she was imprisoned there. She wanted the _world_ to know that.

“In case you’re still unsure about agreeing to this,” Sombra added, “let me sweeten the deal a little. I’ll tell you something _very_ important about this city if you agree. Heck, I’ll tell you before you even tell me anything. That’s just how nice I am.”

“Be cautious with this,” Ana murmured, so quiet that Boss could barely hear her. “It’s a deal with the devil.”

“No, the devil is Vishkar.” Boss returned her attention to Sombra. “I guess…we’ll do it.”

“Great!” Sombra golf clapped. “That’s a wise decision, especially considering you can’t leave this city without my help.”

Boss blinked. “What does that mean?”

“So here’s what I agreed to tell you,” Sombra said. “This entire city, everything around you – none of it is real.”

“What??” Junkrat interjected. He looked like he was going to say something else, but Boss shushed him so Sombra could continue.

“I mean, it exists in the real world. But it’s not a ‘real’ city. This was Vishkar’s first Utopea, a city made entirely out of hard light. It’s the city they use for their advertisements and for when news stations and stuff want to do features on their company. It’s a model. That means it’s got to be perfect all the time. And you know what isn’t perfect all the time?”

“…Humans?” Boss wasn’t sure where she was going with her question.

“Yeah. Humans.” Sombra folded her arms idly. “Humans are messy and flawed. Vishkar can’t take a chance on letting random humans represent their company’s ideal city. So there are no humans living here.”

“That’s not true,” Junkrat butted in. “We’ve seen tons’a people here!”

“And isn’t it weird how none of them have reported a bunch of obvious criminals roaming their streets? Hell, a few hours after you guys took your little city bus joyride Vanessa was strolling right down the street in broad daylight. Did anybody seem concerned at all?”

“…No,” Boss mumbled. “They didn’t.”

“They’re robots. Not Omnics, they’re not that smart or high-end. Basically low-grade knockoffs meant to fill the background space when Vishkar films promotional videos and stuff.”

“So this whole city is fake…?” Boss lowered her gaze to the ground. She _had_ noticed how eerily perfect everything was. The streets were all so flawlessly aligned and symmetrical, everything perfectly in its place. She’d just never assumed it was something as crazy as the possibility that the entire city was a Vishkar creation. “Did Satya know this?”

Sombra chuckled. “She helped design it.”

“This can’t be true.” Junkrat hopped up, pulling his frag launcher off his back. “That hard light shit goes up in smoke when ya so much as breathe on it. We were out here gettin’ in car crashes with all sorts of explosions. The bus didn’t shatter like hard light.”

“The hard light you’re used to is Satya making shit in like two seconds. This city was done by an entire team of Architechs. It’s probably a _little_ more sturdy than some ass-pulled turrets.” Sombra examined her nails. “And you can’t leave, either. The only way in or out of the city is through Vishkar and their teleporters. Otherwise you eventually just hit an invisible force field that you can’t get past. At least that’s what their files say. I haven’t been there myself.” She pulled up some more documents, skimming them as she spoke.

“So Satya knew what she was doing. She didn’t let us go. She just lengthened our leash a little.”

“It’s weird, though.” Sombra closed the documents, returning her full attention to Boss and the other Junkers. “I don’t know why she would do that in the first place. The only theory I can think of is that maybe she was, like, testing you or something. Seeing what you’d do with your ‘freedom’.” She stifled a laugh. “And look what you went and did.”

“She thought we might have changed.” Satya had said that right out, in front of Boss and Hana. “We didn’t change at all.”

“Satya Vaswani is a lot of things,” Sombra said, “but she’s not an idiot. No way was she gonna let a bunch of criminals run loose in a real city. She must have known you guys weren’t really reformed at all.”

“So we are technically still imprisoned by Vishkar.” That was the first time Ana had spoken since her warning to Boss about Sombra.

Sombra nodded. “You know how people put their kids in playpens to keep them out of trouble? Well, this is your playpen. Maybe they wanted you out of their hair for a little while so they could mess with Hana all they wanted.”

“I could get out of here.” Boss got to her feet. “I mean, couldn’t I?”

“I doubt it. They did a lot of research and testing on you while they had you there. But hey, try it if you want.”

Boss disappeared into the ground. Sombra tapped her nails against an unseen surface, waiting. She reappeared several minutes later.

“Well?” Sombra asked.

Boss grunted. “You were right. I tried to follow the river…after a while it just ends. A big wall of light you can’t get through.”

“No surprise there. I’m usually right about most things.” Sombra was still wearing a cocky smile. A good part of Boss felt like this woman was not at all out to actually help Hana or the Junkers. It seemed she was more amused by their predicament than anything. “So you’re all trapped in a simulated city and your friend has been taken over by a mind control chip in her brain. You’re _really_ lucky to have me.”

“Can you even help us?” Boss was beginning to have her doubts.

“Of course.” Sombra leaned in close to the camera. “In fact, I have a plan already. Here’s what we’re gonna do…”


	17. Out of Darkness

“Are you nervous?” Sanjay leaned slightly against the wall with his arms folded, watching Hana finish her makeup.

“No,” she said, though her voice quavered a bit.

“It’s all right to be, if you are. I know it’s been a long time since you’ve done anything like this.”

Hana truly was not nervous at the prospect of doing a livestream – she’d done hundreds of them in her short life and was not at all camera shy. It was her head. She’d been feeling strange for the past few days, and today that strangeness had amplified. It wasn’t necessarily painful, but it felt like someone was rooting around inside her brain. Her thoughts kept getting jumbled midway through, forcing her to stop and iron them out to avoid pouring a bunch of word salad out on Sanjay or anyone else.

“I’m fine.” Her hand shook a little as she applied a touch of mascara to her eyelashes. “I’m…excited, actually.”

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Well I’m happy to hear that. I’m sure your fans have missed you.”

Hana stared at herself in the mirror. _I feel so weird._ The girl in her reflection didn’t feel like herself. It was as if there was some sort of disconnect there. _Was I always like this?_

She tugged at the Vishkar replica of the skin-tight bodysuit she always wore during her livestreams. The girl in the mirror did the same thing. Surely it had to be her. Didn’t it?

“Hey, Sanjay?”

“Yes?”

She turned toward him. “The girl in the mirror…that’s me, right?”

Sanjay blinked. “Um, yes. That’s your reflection, Hana.”

Hana turned and stared back at the mirror girl. She was pretty. Her real hair was starting to grow out nicely, an even layer of light brown fuzz covering her scalp, though she still wore a wig out in public. Her skin was flawless and smooth, almost unnaturally so. Someone whom Hana was fairly certain was not a dentist had filed her teeth down to make them look almost normal. One of her pupils was larger than the other, which she didn’t remember from before she was cured.

“Hana…” She repeated her own name, rolled it around in her mouth and dragged each sound out. “Hana and…Hana.” She touched the cool glass of the mirror’s surface. Her reflection did the same.

“Are you all right?” Sanjay began to close the distance between them. “If you’re not feeling up to streaming today, you don’t have to.”

The weirdness in her brain was spinning her thoughts into a maelstrom. “It’s like…” she murmured. Sanjay looked at her with concern on his face. “It’s like there’s…worms in my brain…or something else…aliens or something…messing with my head…”

That seemed to alarm Sanjay. “Okay, we should probably check you out, then. Let’s put off the livestream until you’re better.”

Hana slumped down onto the hard light dresser, one cheek rested on its cold surface. “There are alien worms in my brain and they want me to…I don’t know…” She stared at the wall, not bothering to meet Sanjay’s gaze.

From behind her she heard Sanjay paging for assistance. She shifted slightly and gazed out the window of her bedroom. The sky sure looked nice at this time of the afternoon. She wished she could reach up and stick her fingers all in it. Being inside all day was boring. It was maddening. Maybe that was how the alien brain worms were able to prey on her. She was bored and vulnerable.

_I want to be outside. I should go outside._

She got up from the dresser and headed for the door.

“Hana, where are you going?” Sanjay chased after her.

“Outside. I need some air.”

“You can’t go unattended. I’ll have to accompany y–”

Hana wandered off without him. She slammed the door before he could follow her, then disappeared down one of Vishkar’s many identical hallways. She hadn’t been outside in so long, but something was tugging her in that direction. It probably wasn’t the best idea to follow wherever the brain worms wanted her to go, but she had little choice in the matter. Her body was practically moving itself.

She passed several Vishkar employees who were too caught up in their own business to stop and question her. _Hana…_ Was she really that pretty girl in the mirror? That girl looked like a doll. _Am I a doll? Am I even real?_

There was a side exit to Vishkar that the employees usually used to go for smoke breaks and the like. It opened automatically, and she wandered out of it like a lost child. “Maybe I’m not real,” she murmured to herself. “Maybe I’m just a doll and that’s why Vishkar had to fix me. Maybe I’m a robot…maybe I’m an omnic…maybe I – _yowch!_ ”

She screeched as something snapped around her lower leg. Her immediate instinct was to jump away from the thing, but it had her held fast. It appeared to be some sort of homemade bear trap – and its design looked oddly familiar.

She was just sucking in another lungful of air to shriek some more when something else struck her – this time in the neck. Her hand drifted to it, and she was just able to feel out that it was some sort of dart before she collapsed to the ground, out cold.

* * *

 

_Wait, we have to make an incision? I thought you could just, like, hack it long-distance or something–_

_I can. But I need to see what the hell I’m even looking at first._

_Hell, mate, we ain’t brain surgeons!_

_Neither was anyone at Vishkar, and hey, they pulled it off. Sorta._

Oddly familiar voices crept through Hana’s head. She pried her tired eyes open. “Ahh!”

“Aghh!” A boy with patchy blonde hair jumped back. He had apparently been staring down at her. “Oi, Hana’s awake!”

Several more faces crowded around to stare down at her. In the dim light of…wherever she was Hana couldn’t make them out too well. She sat up, surprised that she wasn’t tied down this time.

“How are you feeling, Hana?” a girl asked. “Sombra was trying to jam the signal to your chip. We weren’t sure how well it worked.”

“Are you gonna kill me?” Hana asked.

“Um, no. Why would we?”

“Wait, you couldn’t anyway. I’m not real.”

The strangers in the room exchanged glances. “…Right,” the girl said. “Of course you’re not. So we can’t hurt you.”

“Nope.” Hana caught a glimpse of someone on a screen – a woman with purple hair in a pink and purple coat. She was watching the scenario with casual interest. “So what’s going on? Are you guys with Vishkar?”

“You don’t remember us?” The blonde boy furrowed his brow. He almost seemed hurt.

“My brain’s a little wonky right now. There’s alien worms chewing into it.”

“What??” The boy startled. The girl shook her head at him.

“She’s messed up from Sombra’s interference. I’m pretty sure there aren’t _actual_ worms in her brain.”

“Can we just do this?” The woman on the screen tapped her nails impatiently. “I don’t have all day to hang out with you losers.”

“What are we doing?” Hana glanced around at the ragtag group surrounding her. They didn’t look like Vishkar employees, but they triggered a sense of familiarity in her for some reason. Whoever these people were, she felt strangely at ease with them.

“We’re gonna remove the, uh – the ‘brain worms’ in your head.” The girl eased her back down onto the countertop she’d woken up on. They seemed like they were in some sort of basement or something – it resembled Vishkar in its design, but not in its darkness and slight decay. It felt almost like a Vishkar property that had been abandoned, or maybe was never occupied to begin with.

The woman on the screen cleared her throat. “Actually you’re not going to be removing it.”

The girl turned to face the screen. “What? We’re not?”

“It’s embedded so deep in her brain that it’s basically a part of it now. Maybe if you were a super skilled surgeon with years of experience you could get it out, but since you’re not, if you try to remove it it’ll be like cutting out a chunk of her brain. She’ll either die or we’ll end up with a Hana-Song-shaped vegetable on our hands.” The woman shrugged. “The best we can do is reprogram it and hope it fixes her.”

“Vishkar already fixed me. It was sick before.”

“Yeah, that’s not what happened,” the woman replied in a casual tone. “Their discount neurosurgery screwed you up even worse than the radiation.”

Hana blinked. “…What?”

An old woman stepped out of a shadowy corner of the room and gazed down at her with familiar, motherly concern. Hana’s eyes widened as she stared into the woman’s single visible eye. “Ana…?” A bolt of pain arced through her head. “Ow!” She curled up, squeezed her eyes shut and tugged at her little bit of hair. “Ah, ow!”

“What’s wrong?” the younger girl asked, hurrying to her side. “Hana, are you okay?”

“Just let me go! Let me go back!” She needed Vishkar’s medical attention. They were always able to help her. “Take me back…take me back…”

“Hana, please, you _have_ to calm down if we’re gonna help you. You can trust us, I promise.” The girl took her hand and squeezed it. A spark, like a faint static shock, passed through Hana’s hand and up her arm. Suddenly the pain receded.

Hana slowly pried her eyes back open. She was curled up against a wall – a wall topped with barbed wire and painted a solemn gray. She could feel something cold and wet running down her face.

_I let them all down._ The thoughts swirling in her head were not her own. _It’s all gone to hell now. Everything I tried to do…the legacy I wanted to leave…_

“Boss?”

Hana uncovered her face and glanced up at a girl cautiously approaching her. She was dressed in a rather silly but oddly cute getup of mismatched leather pieces, and a pair of oversized motorcycle goggles covered half her face.

_Is that…me?_   That thought was very much her own.

Even through the goggles the sparkle in the girl’s eyes was clearly visible. _That can’t be me…my eyes don’t look like that._

Hana turned away from the girl, trying not to let on that she had been crying.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked anyway, kneeling down to her.

_Hana…_ An overwhelming feeling clutched at her heart when she stared into the sparkling eyes gazing down at her. Hana couldn’t tell if it was her own feelings or the feelings of…Boss. Boss! That was the familiar girl in the Vishkar room!

“I knew we were running low on food.” The words flowed out of Hana’s mouth without her willing them to, as if she were simply watching the scene before her rather than taking an active part. “I should’ve warned them sooner. I just…didn’t know how to tell them. I was scared of how they’d react.”

Other Hana looked her over. One of her hands settled on the ground near Boss’ leg. She felt a tiny tickle run through her body at the closeness between them. “Um, I don’t really care about that right now,” other Hana said. “I’m kinda more concerned with how you’re even still _alive_.”

_She actually cares about me? Or at least wants to make sure I’m all right…that’s the most concern I’ve gotten from any Junker here._

They talked on, speaking of things Hana could not remember but had apparently experienced in some other life. There was such a gentleness to their interactions. Vishkar had said the Junkers were all bad people, but Junker Hana didn’t seem too bad. Neither did Boss. Hell, the other Junkers were standing guard all around them, keeping them safe. Looking out for each other. _Like a family would do._

Other Hana reached out and took Boss by the sleeve of her jacket. “You’re coming with us.”

The emotion that claimed her then was undeniably Boss’. It felt like…love. Like she was lovestruck. _She_ does _care about me._ Her face grew warm as other Hana pulled her to her feet and began leading her over to the rest of the Junkers. _She knows what I am and she still wants me around._

With a small degree of hesitation, Hana lifted her hand and wrapped it tight around the other girl’s. “Of course I want you around,” she whispered, “you’re my family.”

The hand she was holding was no longer other Hana’s. Now it was darker, and smoother to the touch. She raised her gaze to find herself staring at Boss, back in the mysterious Vishkar building the Junkers were holding her in.

“…Really?” Boss asked.

“What?” Once snapped out of the memory Hana was having trouble keeping her thoughts straight again.

“You said ‘Of course I want you around, you’re my family.’”

“Oh.” Hana stared at her for a long time. Nobody spoke, but everyone was watching her. She slowly withdrew her hand from Boss’ and said, “I thought I was cured. But I think I’m still sick.”

“Don’t worry, Deevs,” the boy piped up, “we’re gonna fix ya. You know we always got your back!”

Hana tried to muster a smile. “Thanks. I – I trust you guys.”

A rapping at the door startled all of them out of the moment. Everyone immediately fell silent.

Boss ducked low and crept over toward the basement’s door. The woman on the holovid screen quickly pulled her hood over her eyes and affixed a skull mask to cover the rest of her face. Everybody seemed ready for a confrontation. Hana couldn’t help but feel like she was missing some key details.

The two male Junkers quietly approached the door with weapons at the ready. Boss counted down with three fingers. Upon putting down the final finger she threw the door open. The biggest Junker slung a giant, spiked hook through the doorway. There was a shriek, and something came crashing down the stairs.

Hana sat up from the counter, astonished to find that the shrieking person – now in the process of being tied up by Roadhog – was Satya. “Hey, don’t hurt her!” Hana said as she climbed down and hurried over to the other Junkers.

“Release me, you ruffian!” Satya’s artificial palm was glowing, as if she were trying to construct something, but without the use of her other hand it was largely impossible. Her visor was cracked, probably from the fall down the stairs, and her favorite blue dress was now stained with dirt across the front. Hana had never seen her look so disarrayed. “I came here to assist you, not to be _hog-tied_!”

“Hey, that’s his specialty,” the blonde boy said.

The hacker on the screen made no attempt to hide how funny she found the situation. She was leaned back in her chair, clutching her stomach and guffawing.

“You’re here to help?” Hana knelt down beside Satya on the cold cement floor. “Seriously?”

“No way.” Boss got between the two of them. “No one from Vishkar is getting involved in this. Especially not her.” She cast a glance around at the other Junkers, making sure she held everyone’s attention. “We leave her tied up until we’re done and out of here. Let Vishkar find her when they find her.”

“I got a better idea.” The blonde Junker dropped a mine-like bomb at Satya’s feet and pulled a detonator button from the pocket of his shorts. Satya’s eyes widened.

“No, don’t!” Hana didn’t even hesitate to pick the bomb up and toss it away. “Can we at least see what she has to say first?”

“Why, so she can lie to us again?” Boss snarled. “Acting like she was setting us free when she was just dumping us into this creepy-ass empty Vishkar city that’s all walled off from the outside.”

“I wanted to ensure you were capable of returning to civilization. I had to test it in a safe environment first.” Satya turned her nose up slightly. “And I am glad I did.”

“So why did you come after me?” Hana asked. “To bring me back to Vishkar?”

Satya paused. Her clenched jaw loosened a little, and she fixed her eyes more on the floor than on Hana. “There were Junkers who were brought to Vishkar before your group arrived.”

Hana blinked. “There were?”

Satya nodded. “Twelve, to be exact. I did not much interact with them, but I heard all that I felt I needed to know. That they were savage, soulless creatures, little more than beasts wearing human flesh. All public Vishkar record stated that they were relocated to housing communities throughout India, monitored closely and given frequent medical checkups.”

Hana waited for her to finish. She was silent for a long time, taking a few deep breaths before continuing.

“I have learned recently that this was never true. All twelve of the Junkers were…disposed of, right here at Vishkar.”

“They killed them?” Boss knelt down beside Hana, focusing mainly on Satya. “I had Junkers disappear while they were out scavenging. That could have been them.” She gritted her teeth. “I lost good people, and all this time they might have been killed by _your_ fucking company.”

“I know.” Satya leveled her with a neutral stare. “As I said, I only learned of this recently.”

“Thanks to yours truly.” The hacker pressed her thumb to her chest. “I’m so happy to hear you’re actually opening your eyes and paying attention to Vishkar’s scummy side for once. I’m proud of you, Satya!”

“Be quiet.” Satya narrowed her eyes at the woman, then slowly returned her attention to Hana and Boss. “When I learned of this, I was horrified. Vishkar’s stated goal is to build a better world, and to uplift humanity. I understand that some people are unsalvageable, but to simply round up human beings in poor environments and mass execute them…”

Hana was having trouble processing everything Satya was saying. Her brain was starting to tickle again, and there was a dull ache at its core, like it was trying to grow its way out of her skull. She sat back on her heels and massaged her temples. To her surprise Boss slipped one arm delicately around her waist and allowed Hana to lean on her.

“I convinced myself that taking some lives to benefit the whole of humanity was acceptable. But that is not what Vishkar is doing with the Junkers. They are systematically eliminating them. They would have killed you too, Hana, had you not been more useful to them alive.”

Hana rested her cheek on Boss’ shoulder. “I thought Vishkar was helping me…”

“They stifled your free will so that you would agree with them. At first I did not disapprove of such methods – all my life I have held the belief that humankind can only improve itself through heightened cooperation and the shedding of conflicting individual ideals. That is how even the lowliest of creatures, like the ant, have managed to colonize the entire earth.” Satya sighed. “But perhaps humans are not so simple. You were not flourishing like I had hoped you would. All of your strengths – your stubbornness, your kindness, your wit – all were so very dulled. You were not yourself at all. And it was…depressing. I felt a sense of guilt like I had never experienced before.”

“So how are you planning on helping us?” Boss interrupted Satya’s monologue to ask.

Satya looked around at the Junkers. “I cannot show you unless you untie me. At least my arms.”

“No way.” Boss straightened her spine. “I know how you operate. All your power is in your arms. We give you use of those and we’re screwed.”

Satya’s eyes narrowed. “Then I cannot assist you.”

Hana lifted her eyes to Boss’ face. She was struggling to follow the back-and-forth of Boss and Satya’s conversation. All she knew was that she was feeling sad for some reason. She missed her friends at Vishkar. She wanted to get back to them.

After a few seconds of the sad feeling leaking into her head, Hana stood up and began to walk away. “Whoa, where are you going?” Boss latched on to her arm. Hana shook her loose and kept going, up the stairs of the strange basement. “Hana!”

“I just wanna – just gonna go tell Sanjay…” She stumbled on the stairs, caught herself, and continued half-walking, half-crawling up the flight.

“Retrieve her.” Satya’s tone changed. “Or she will return and tell them everything that transpired here.”

Suddenly Hana was scooped up by the big masked Junker. “Hey, let me go! They’re probably…Sanjay will want to know where I am…” Ignoring her protests, the man carried her over to where Ana was lurking in the far corner of the room. He dropped her at her feet.

Hana looked up at her. Ana stared down at her. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Then Ana eventually said, “It has been quiet without you.”

Hana tilted her head. “Do I usually talk a lot?” Vishkar rewarded quietness. Quiet time eating, quiet time putting on her makeup, quiet time playing video games or watching the holovid. She was usually expected just to listen to the Vishkar employees and not to produce her own opinions.

Ana frowned. “What have they done to you?”

“Vishkar? Vishkar…” A sudden realization struck her. “I have to get back to them! I have to do my livestream–”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Boss grabbed her and held her in place. “Not until we reprogram that chip or whatever.”

Hana wriggled in her arms. “No! I have to go!”

“Junkrat, Roadhog, can you guys make sure she doesn’t go anywhere?”

_Junkrat and Roadhog. That’s right, those are their names. I remember._

They seized her immediately. Junkrat stared right into her eyes, with that same mix of sadness and pity they all seemed to hold toward her. “C’mon, Hana,” he said, “You’re a Junker. And Junkers are tough. You can fight off those Vishkar bastards!”

“I’m not so tough.” A tingle in her head reminded her of her true purpose with Vishkar. “I’m supposed to be cute and endearing.” She giggled a little. “Who would want a company representative that’s tough and mean?”

“I’m losing control here,” Sombra said. “We have to do this now.”

Boss returned her attention to Satya. “If I untie your arms – _if_ – what are you going to show us?”

“I have obtained some relevant classified Vishkar documents. They will aid you in counteracting Hana’s reprogramming.”

“Reprogramming?” Hana twisted in Junkrat’s grip. “Is that what the aliens did? Vishkar said there were aliens in my brain. Or wait, was that something else…oh, I saw this old movie on the holovid where aliens burst out of people’s stomachs. Maybe I have an alien in my stomach, too. Is my brain gonna explode? Kinda feels like it…”

Boss exhaled. In one flippant motion she yanked the chains off of Satya’s arms. “Thank you,” Satya said, her chin high. She did not waste a moment shaping something with her freed hands. Across the floor a stretch of hard light came together, forming some sort of three-dimensional blueprint.

“What’s this?” Boss asked.

“The schematics to Hana’s microchip.”

“Whoa, seriously?” Sombra leaned in close to the camera. “Even I wasn’t able to get that.”

“It wasn’t uploaded to our servers. All that exists are physical sheets of hard-light blueprints, like this one.”

“That’ll be _super_ useful. Can one of you bring it over here?”

Boss gingerly scooped up the hard light document and set it down in front of the holovid screen. Sombra pored over it for some time before saying, “Yeah, this will _definitely_ help me reprogram it.”

“So will you still need us to cut open her head?” Boss asked.

Sombra shook her head. “No, I probably won’t now. This thing has it all, even the hash codes. All I’ll have to do is…”

She began typing away at an unseen keyboard, all the while mumbling to herself in a string of technobabble Hana couldn’t have understood even with her normal amount of brain functionality.

Boss still didn’t look too impressed. “So, what,” she asked Satya, “that’s it, you’ve turned on Vishkar now?”

“No.” Boss raised her eyebrows at Satya’s response, but allowed her to elaborate. “I still believe that Vishkar’s end goals are good. There is corruption within our ranks, and I will root it out and rid the company of the evil people who have taken hold there. Then we will be back on our righteous path.”

“So you’re still loyal to them?”

“Vishkar is my family. They are my home.” Satya’s gaze flicked over Hana and the rest of the Junkers, then back to Boss. “Surely you understand not wanting to abandon your family simply because they have committed some wrongs.”

Boss kneaded the leather of her jacket, avoiding Satya’s stare. “A long time ago…”

“Hm?” Satya sat back a little, making use of her free arms to support herself.

“A long time ago Hana said she had hoped you would leave Vishkar and join the Junkers.”

Hana perked up. “Did I say that?”

“Yeah. You said you figured it wasn’t going to happen, but you had a sort of pipe dream of Satya coming along with us when we leave here.”

“Is Satya gonna join the Junkers?” A swirl of emotions stirred her up inside. “What about Vishkar? You’re their star…I am, too…they need us. They need us to–” She gasped. “The livestream!”

“Nope, you’re not goin’ anywhere Deevs.” Junkrat held her down while she struggled to get to the stairs.

Sombra continued tapping away at her keys, using the schematics as an apparent reference. The blueprint meant nothing to Hana. “They put a microchip in my brain?” she eventually asked, settling down from struggling in Junkrat’s arms.

“Yeah.” Sombra kept typing. “They’re controlling your neural impulses. Or they were before I jammed the signal. Ha, SHA-1? What is this, the 2020s?” She pulled up a projection of a screen. “Boom.” She poked the screen with one finger. “I’m in. I should have pretty much total control over the chip now.”

“So you can control my brain?”

“Hm. Let’s find out.” She swiped her finger across the screen.

An awkward, yet strangely pleasant sensation flooded through Hana. She felt her cheeks warm as heat surged to parts of her body she was not quite expecting. She clasped her hands together and sank to her knees on the floor, her face scrunched. Her hands settled in her lap as she subconsciously attempted to cover said affected parts.

“How do you feel?” Boss asked.

“Um…” Hana coughed weakly. “Well, it did something.”

Sombra lifted her mask, long enough to show Hana just how much she was grinning. “Oh my God. That wasn’t what I was trying to do, but that’s freaking hilarious.”

“Wait, what’d it do?” Junkrat eyed her curiously.

“Change it back, please,” Hana whimpered. “This is really awkward.”

“Okay, okay, fine.” Sombra swiped back the other way. The feeling slowly began to recede. “Let’s try another one.”

“No, please–”

Sombra fiddled with some other settings. Hana waited, trying to make note of any changes she felt.

“Anything?” Sombra asked.

Hana examined herself. “나는 다르다고 느끼지 않습니다.”

Everyone stared at her. Hana blinked. “영어 잘 못해…”

“Oi, she’s speakin’ Asian now!” Junkrat thrust his hands out in her direction.

“It’s probably Korean,” Boss replied. “You must be messing with the part of her brain that handles language.”

“Can ya at least understand us??” Junkrat clutched her by the arm, his eyes wide.

Hana nodded.

“This is so interesting.” Sombra was clearly having a great time messing around in Hana’s head.

Hana scowled at her. “당신은 나를 도와 주어야 합니다.”

“Sorry? Didn’t get that.”

Hana’s scowled deepened. That only amused Sombra further, though she resumed playing with the settings, optimistically in an attempt to fix what she’d messed up.

After some tinkering Hana finally dared to speak aloud. “Am I bilingual again? Oh, thank God.” She murmured a bit of Korean under her breath to ensure she hadn’t lost that, either. “Will you stop messing with my brain now? Can’t you just deprogram the chip or whatever?”

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Sombra was still snickering to herself, belying her answer. As she continued to fiddle with the chip’s settings Hana could feel the changes to her perception and mood. It was disorienting. She ended up sitting beside Satya on the floor. The cool cement helped to ground her a little.

“I don’t suppose you would be willing to untie me,” Satya said.

“Your arms are free, can’t you untie yourself?”

“If I untie myself your friends will think I am trying to attack them.”

“Hm. True.” Hana reached over and started fiddling with the chains that bound her. Satya sighed and held still. Eventually the chains fell to the ground with a clatter. The Junkers all turned to them. “It’s okay, guys. She’s not gonna attack us.”

Boss was clearly about to protest, but Sombra interrupted before she could. “So I think I found the way to factory reset,” she said. “Let me know if you feel any sudden changes.”

Hana swallowed. She sat and waited with false patience as this woman she had absolutely no faith in rooted around inside her head.

“There. How do you feel now?”

Hana looked around, then glanced down at her own self. “…These clothes aren’t very practical for survival.” She tugged at the thin bodysuit. “I wonder if they still have my old clothes somewhere?”

“Wait, so are you back to your Junker self?” Boss clasped her hands together, wincing, as if prepared for the worst.

Hana stared at her for a long time. Then she threw herself into the other girl’s arms. Tears cascaded down her face – and when she opened her eyes she found that Boss was crying, too. They clung to each other for ages, Hana basking in the human contact after so many weeks of being kept at arm’s length by Vishkar.

“Good lord, somebody’s gonna have to break out the tissues.” Junkrat grabbed Hana next, wiping her tears with his organic hand. “S’good to have you back, Hana.”

“Aaand let’s not forget the one who was responsible for saving her!” A hologram of clapping hands manifested around Sombra. She took a bow.

Hana drew back from Boss and Junkrat. “Thank you,” she said to Sombra. “Thank you so much.”

Sombra removed her mask. “Well hey, don’t – don’t go getting all sappy about it. I have an agenda, you know.”

Hana nodded. “I know.”

Sombra pulled her eyes away from Hana. “And, uh…” She traced circles on the desk in front of her with a fingernail. “I know about what happened to your parents. I lost mine real young too. Sucks.”

Hana bit her lip. All she could do was nod again.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Ana took Hana’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “Be honest, Hana.”

“Well I feel all right. I don’t know for sure that I am, but I feel like I can actually think again.”

Ana didn’t respond. After a wordless moment, she drew Hana into her arms and embraced her. Hana sniffled and clung to her. “I knew something was missing,” she murmured. “All this time…”

The basement door flew open. It slammed against the wall and echoed through the tiny room. Everyone froze. This time Sombra fully disconnected, leaving them alone in the near-dark.

Satya’s eyes widened as she stared up at the man who had thrown the door open. Hana’s throat went bone dry.


	18. My Life

Sanjay descended the stairs with an eerie calmness. “I was wondering where you got to,” he said, fixing his stare on Hana. “And I see Satya pursued you here as well.”

Hana tried to muster enough saliva to speak clearly. “S-Sanjay…yeah, I…”

He came and stood right in front of her, never once settling his gaze on any of the Junkers. “So what was going on down here?”

“I – my brain was still feeling weird, and I…I just ended up down here, and…”

He nodded. “Right, of course. Are you feeling better now?”

“Um…”

A deafening buzz filled the room. Hana turned to find the other Junkers trapped by a translucent box of electric blue light so small they could barely fit into it. Junkrat tried to shoulder the side, but recoiled immediately as it sparked and presumably shocked him.

Sanjay waited for Hana to turn back around before he spoke. Then, seizing her by the arm, he hissed, “I am so _sick_ of you.”

“Sanjay,” Satya finally spoke up, “listen to me – what Vishkar claims to be doing with the Junkers, it is not true. They are not helping them. They are eliminating them to take their land.”

Sanjay maintained his grip on Hana’s arm, almost inhumanly strong. In the faint light Hana made out a faint glittering between his glove and the end of his sleeve. _His arm is metal like Satya’s._ “You think this is news to me?” he replied, still creepily calm in tone. “Not everyone is as oblivious as you are, Satya.”

Satya drew back a little. “You knew about this?”

“I was involved in it.” He wrapped his other arm around Hana’s stomach, preventing any chance of her getting away from him. “Unlike you, apparently, some of us are actually dedicated to achieving Vishkar’s goals.”

“Sanjay, our goal is to uplift humanity and create a better world for everyone. That includes the most vulnerable among us, the ones who must be shown the way.” Satya reached out to him. He took a step backward, shoved Hana against the wall, and bound her hands together with light. Once she was incapacitated he pushed her to the ground and turned his full attention on Satya.

“You have no idea how much privilege you’ve had here, Satya. The rest of us Architechs work ourselves to death so you can be Vishkar's pampered little princess. The one who never has to do any dirty work.” He took a menacing step toward her. “Of _course_ you think improving the world is all sunshine and hand-holding – you live in your own damn reality. Unless you suddenly decide to join the rest of us here in the real world you will _never_ understand Vishkar’s motivations.”

Satya could do nothing but search his face with wide eyes, seemingly at a loss for words. Her lack of response only seemed to spur him on.

“I've given my _life_ to this company! Then one day you barge in, the dirty little rescue dog from Hyderabad, and suddenly we have to acquiesce to all of your petty demands – that we're _talking too loud_ , that the room is _too bright_ , any little thing that bothers Princess Satya. And we're all forced to go along because if we don't you're going to throw yourself on the floor and start pitching a tantrum like a toddler.” A wicked smile spread over his lips. “Now here you are conspiring against us with a bunch of violent criminals. You're an immediate threat to this company now. I'd say that's grounds for...termination.”

Before Hana could even fully register what was going on Sanjay was at Satya’s throat with a weapon similar to her own. A burst of orange light exploded out from it, latching on to her and pulling a scream out from deep in her throat.

“Satya!” Hana tried to crawl toward them, but her progress with bound arms was minimal.

“I’ve been waiting for an excuse to get you out of here for a long time.” Sanjay held her firmly in place. Satya tried to knock the weapon away, but Sanjay caught her metal arm in his own false hand. With a twist and a sickening _snap_ he detached her arm and flung it against the wall behind them, far from her reach.

“I knew Vishkar was being poisoned by evil people…” Satya fought against him, but it was clear he was using the same energy draining weaponry Satya had used on the Junkers ages ago. “I had no idea you were one of them…”

Hana desperately scrunched and un-scrunched her body, like an inchworm. In that way she managed to crawl over to Satya’s discarded arm. Stretching her jaw muscles as wide as they would go, she bit down on Satya’s metal palm. _Ugh, this would be so much easier if they hadn’t filed my teeth down._ She pulled the limb in as close to her tied hands as she could manage. Unfortunately the sound of metal dragging across concrete was clearly audible to everyone in the room, even over the sound of Sanjay’s weapon.

The weapon went quiet as Sanjay watched Hana struggle. “I can’t decide which one of you is more pathetic,” he murmured, “the one who refuses a life of luxury to return to a band of criminals, or the one who abandons all of her responsibilities to _assist_ those criminals.” Still holding on to Satya, he walked over to Hana. His spotlessly-polished shoe drove down into her throat. She gagged as he steadily increased his weight on her windpipe. “Both of you were more trouble than you were ever worth.”

Hana stared up at him. It was still a little hard for her to believe that this man, who had seemed to genuinely care for her while she was under Vishkar’s control, was now attempting to, and was probably going to succeed in, strangling her to death.

The Junkers, especially Junkrat and Boss, were pounding on the walls of their “cage”, ignoring the sparks that flew from it as they did so. Boss was kicking it as hard as she could. It must have been far stronger than any of Satya’s delicate constructions, because they made no progress in doing so.

Saliva welled up in Hana’s blocked throat and dribbled out onto the floor. She made one last attempt to flail her way to freedom, but Sanjay held her held fast. Her vision was starting to dim around the edges. _Great, guess this is how I die. Survive a nuclear apocalypse just to get choked to death by some white-collar asshat…_

Suddenly Sanjay went flying into the wall. Satya swung her gun at him again, knocking him to the floor beside Hana. “Vishkar can be saved,” she said, “but the evil corrupting it must be eliminated.”

A burst of light erupted between them. Hana scrambled out of the way. The beam from Satya’s weapon arced out toward the Junkers’ cage, piercing it like a spear. The cage shattered. Ana darted over to Hana, grabbed her up, and freed her hands with one strong pull. Hana half-crawled, half-ran over to the rest of the Junkers, who pulled her into the fold with protective arms.

Sanjay pushed Satya down and held his claw-weapon a few inches from her face. Satya attempted to knock him away, but without her left arm she was visibly disadvantaged.

In a snap decision Hana surrendered the safety of the Junkers to sneak back to her, arm in hand.

“You remember the explosion in Calado?” Sanjay kept his weapon pressed right to Satya’s face. She winced, still trying in vain to push him off. “That was me. That’s the price of improving the world, Satya. Vishkar was _so_ pleased with me, because that’s exactly the kind of dedication they need to put their plans into motion.”

“You ruined the lives of those civilians.” Satya shook her head, the disgust in her voice practically tangible. “You killed some of them. That is _not_ making a better world.”

Hana slowed as she came up behind Sanjay, still clutching tight to Satya’s heavy prosthetic arm.

“You just don’t get it, Satya. You live in a fantasy world where nothing has costs or consequences and everyone can just sit around holding hands and being perfectly happy all the time. The real world isn’t _like_ that. _Everything_ comes at a price. And the price of improving Vishkar now is–”

_Clang!_ The blow from the metal arm sent him sprawling to the cement. Hana whacked him again, and a third time, trying to beat him away from Satya. He shielded his face and shouted for her to stop. “No!” She hit him again. “You leave Satya alone!”

Slowly sitting up, Satya watched as Hana used her detached limb to beat her coworker into submission. She did not try to stop Hana. In fact, once Sanjay was reduced to a cowering ball on the floor Satya simply held her remaining hand out with her palm turned upwards. Hana handed her the arm, which she noticed then had a streak of Sanjay’s blood on it. Satya took the arm and quickly reaffixed it – it bonded seamlessly to her shoulder, as if she’d been born with it. She waggled her fingers, then formed a small orb of light in her palm. Seeing that everything was in working order she then lowered her arm and returned her attention to Sanjay.

“Vishkar does not need your kind here,” she said to him. “We are supposed to uplift the world, not plunge it into further wickedness.” She kept her weapon pointed at him, but it was obvious, at least to Hana, that she had no intention of actually harming him with it. “I would advise you to leave this place. Find somewhere more suitable to your goals.”

Sanjay rolled over onto his back. His lips were bloodied, Hana realized. She must have hit him in the mouth at least once. “Vishkar _is_ suitable to my goals,” he said. “But you know, you’re right. I don’t want any of your blood on my hands…”

Satya brightened a bit. “Yes, that is the way.” She held her hand out. “Come, Sanjay, I will help you along a better path–”

The floor lit up a blinding blue. Suddenly it transformed, like water, and Hana fell clean through its surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally meant to be part of the final chapter, but I decided to break it into its own little mid-week update. The (still quite long) final chapter will be posted this weekend, and the epilogue the following weekend. Can't believe we're almost to the end! Thanks to everyone for sticking with my "little" story thus far, I've had a ton of fun working on it!


	19. Away From the Things of Man

Before she could right herself, or even get a firm idea of what was going on, Hana was thrown face-first into a patch of sun-broiled dirt. The telltale sounds of the other Junkers landing all around her told her she was not alone. She managed to roll out of the way just before Junkrat ate a mouthful of sand right where she had been, and then Boss crash-landed a meter away from them. Roadhog landed with a _thud_ , and with his giant hands he was able to catch Ana before she hit the ground. “Thank you,” Ana murmured as he set her down in the dirt beside him.

Hana spat out some sand and sat up. Boss was already on her feet, checking the others. “Is everyone all right?” she asked, her tone reminiscent of her old leader days.

Hana nodded. “Did he teleport us? Or maybe Satya did?”

Junkrat didn’t get up. Hana turned to him and realized he was hugging the dirt. “Home sweet home,” he cried, his voice muffled by the earth. “Never thought I’d be happy to be back in the wasteland.”

That spurred Hana to actually take a look around at more than just the Junkers. It was true – they were somewhere back in Australia. It had that unmistakable look, feel, smell – nothing about it felt fake, unlike Vishkar’s city. The sky even held the familiar haze that had taken over since the omnium explosion, though it wasn’t nearly as thick as where they had been living before.

“They teleported us to the middle of the outback?” Hana scooped up a handful of dirt. Something jumped in her palm, and she quickly dropped it. The massive sand spider wasted no time digging itself back underground with its freakishly thick and powerful legs. “Yep. We’re back home all right.”

A strange noise disrupted their conversation. It sounded like someone shouting, but it was muffled. “Oh, Roadhog!” Ana gestured at something behind him. He got to his feet. Hana gasped. Crushed into the dirt – and looking none too pleased about that fact – was Satya. She sat up and furiously brushed the dirt off herself. “Ugh, how unsightly.” She manifested a cloth and wiped herself clean. “Sanjay, what are you trying to…prove…?”

Satya trailed off as she got a good look at her surroundings. A warm wind blew unencumbered through the empty desert, and the sun, at only mid-evening strength, cast a soft gold tinge on everything it touched. And “everything it touched” amounted to basically an endless span of sand and rocks on the horizon.

“You got teleported too?” Hana scratched her chin. “I thought maybe it was you who sent us away.”

Satya went very quiet. She seemed not to be paying Hana’s words any attention. She took a few careful steps through the shifting sands, looking all around but remaining utterly silent.

“So, uh…” Hana continued, “this is the Australian outback. Don’t know exactly where, since this isn’t near where I lived. This is probably more towards the middle of Australia, where nobody really lives.”

“Why would that dickhead dump us off here?” Boss folded her arms. “What, did he think we wouldn’t be able to survive a little desert?” Hana nudged her. “What? …Oh.”

Satya was wandering away from the group. There was nothing but sand in any direction – well, sand and the occasional rock or desert plant. As Hana and Boss watched, Satya sank to her knees and scooped up a handful of sand. It ran through her fingers, fine and silky.

“You can teleport back, right?” Boss called out to her. When Satya did not answer she moved closer, followed by Hana. “Hello?”

Junkrat, Roadhog and Ana followed them as well. Eventually they were all standing around Satya, waiting for her to say something. It took until Hana went and sat down in front of her that Satya finally spoke.

“This place is so quiet,” she murmured. “Devoid of all the noises, the colors, the smells…”

Hana frowned. “I’m sorry. We can get you back to India–”

Satya’s eyes were sparkling like Hana had never seen before. She got to her feet, two fistfuls of sand snaking out between her fingers. “It is…wonderful.”

“Wait, what?”

“It is so peaceful here! I have never experienced anything like it!” She sat back down on the sand and hugged herself. She was smiling, essentially the last thing Hana would have expected out of this scenario.

Hana knelt beside her. “You…like it here? Seriously?”

Satya nodded. “Vishkar wants to transform the outback into another utopian city. I assumed it was like my home city, full of pollution and noise and ugliness. I did not know it was like this. So calm, so serene.”

“Yeah,” Boss mumbled, “this radioactive wasteland is really something.”

Hana elbowed her.

“I always found deserts oddly soothing as well.” Ana sat down a stretch away from Satya. “As a girl I was always wandering off to go exploring in them.” She chuckled lightly. “Probably why I was drawn to the outback after leaving Egypt.”

Satya reached down and ran her fingers lightly over some of the bunch grass growing out of the sand. “Vishkar will destroy all of this.”

That spurred a hearty laugh from Junkrat. “Mate, do you have any idea how bloody huge the outback is? A damn nuclear explosion happened here and nobody batted an eye. There are prob’ly people in the ‘burbs who don’t even know anythin’ happened out here.”

Satya continued rubbing the grass between her fingertips. “Sanjay, and seemingly many others at Vishkar, have wicked intentions. He was trying to hurt me. Perhaps even kill me.”

“I’m sorry, Satya,” Hana said. “To be totally honest, I think the whole company is kind of too rotten to save at this point…”

“I must eventually return to them – I cannot let such wickedness go unchecked.” She paused, her shoulders drooping a little. “But at the moment I feel…exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally. Emotionally, too, perhaps. This has been a lot to contend with.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“So what are we doing now?” Boss interjected. “I mean, I have no idea where we are, so I’m not even sure where we’d be able to stay and rest or anything–”

Satya turned her metal palm upward. It began to glow with its familiar blue light. That light arced out across the sand and traveled upward, meeting in the air above them. Walls sprang up out of seemingly nowhere. The light solidified into a tiny house with windows, furniture and everything.

“Holy shit.” Boss turned in a complete circle, gaping at the new building around them. “You’re amazing.”

Satya dismissed the compliment with a hand wave.

“I…guess we can stay here for the night,” Hana said. “We’ll need to find food and water, but…” She squinted at Satya. “You’re _really_ up for just staying in the middle of the desert?”

“Are you opposed to it?”

“No. It just seems weird that you’d be into nature survivalism stuff, considering where you came from…”

“Survival will not be an issue. I can relocate us anywhere at any time.” Satya looked out one of the wide windows. “I am not sure how to explain this, Hana, but throughout my entire life I have been inundated with loud noises, bright lights, the chaos of far too many humans living far too close together. I have never experienced a quietness like this. It is so novel to me.” She turned back to Hana. Her eyes were round and absolutely glittering, and she was smiling that crooked smile of hers. “For the first time in my life I feel as though I can actually breathe and think in peace. I can see why you and your Junkers would want to preserve this place.”

Hana blinked. “Uh. Okay. Well, I’m glad you like it here. I always wished I grew up in a big city, but I didn’t really mind growing up on a farm.”

Satya clasped her hands together. “Your parents were farmers? Oh, that is so quaint!”

“Solar farmers. Not the kind with cows and horses.”

“Ah.” Satya lowered her hands. “Well, I imagine that would still be quite the better environment than being packed into a city with hundreds of thousands of residents and very little space to one’s self.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true. It was nice to have a yard and lots of space to play in when I was younger.”

“Yes, a child should have access to those things.” She examined her fingernails. “I spent the majority of my childhood indoors. It was nice to be safe and clean, but it grew monotonous after a while.”

Truth be told, Hana missed the warm sun of the outback more than she would have thought. “Do you want to go back outside for a few minutes?” she asked. “I could use some air.”

To Hana’s surprise, Satya agreed. Thus they left the other Junkers to settle into their temporary home base while the two of them stepped outside. Satya manifested a pair of lawn chairs. Hana relaxed into one of them, closing her eyes as the sun warmed her face. Who could have guessed Satya would adapt so well to being thrown into the middle of nowhere? It was almost like Sanjay’s betrayal and her subsequent exile hadn’t fazed her at all.

Hana reclined in the sun with her eyes closed. She probably could have fallen asleep right there if she hadn’t eventually picked up on a quiet noise beside her.

She opened her eyes to find Satya curled up in her seat. One hand covered her eyes, and from beneath it leaked a stream of tears. Her dress was already stained with a myriad of droplets. “Oh, Satya–” Hana immediately got up and sat down on the end of Satya’s chair. “Don’t cry. It’s okay.”

Satya only retreated further into herself. Both hands moved to cover her face then, and she formed herself into a tight, impenetrable ball. Hana reached out and tried to lay a reassuring hand on her knee. Satya made a guttural noise and withdrew out of Hana’s reach.

“I know Vishkar is like, the only thing you’ve ever really known,” Hana said, “but it’s not like you have to leave them forever. You’re – you’re, like, chaperoning us. You know? You could think of it that way, that you’re looking after the Junkers while we’re away from Vishkar.”

Satya lifted her face, exposing her eyes just the tiniest bit. “Sanjay was trying to kill me,” she said, her voice shaking. “All because I didn’t want to kill you.”

“I know. It’s not you, though. It’s because he’s a bad person. It’s hard, but you have to remember that.”

“He is doing what he thinks is best for Vishkar’s future.” Satya’s shoulders quivered. “I was weak and could not follow through with Vishkar’s plan. You all contribute nothing to the betterment of humanity. I was supposed to let you die for the greater good. But I was weak. I could not do it.”

“That doesn’t make you weak. It makes you a good person.”

“What is the point in being a ‘good person’ if I fail at the one single purpose I was given in this life?”

“Well, you make a lot more friends this way.”

Satya huffed. “What ‘friends’ do I have?”

“Me? And all the other Junkers.” Hana made another attempt at contact. “You helped us, Satya. We’re not gonna forget that.”

This time Satya allowed Hana to rest a hand on her knee. “…You consider us friends?”

“Well, yeah. Why not?”

“I thought friendship was different than…this. I always imagined it as something a lot more formal. Mutually declared by both parties or something.”

Hana tried not to laugh. “What, like signing a contract?”

Satya lifted her head. Her bloodshot eyes stared directly into Hana’s. “That is what I learned in my time at Vishkar. That friendship was comprised of extraneous and unnecessary rituals. Similar to a romantic courtship.”

“Wait, so you’ve never had a real friendship before?” Hana balked.

Satya shook her head.

Hana gasped. “Well no _wonder_ you feel like you don’t have anything going for you except work. You need to see how awesome it is to hang out with people who want to spend time with you because they care about you. Not just because you work with them.”

Satya stared down at her lap. With some hesitation Hana crawled up to her in the chair and wrapped her arms around Satya’s neck. Satya froze for a moment, but then her own arms settled around Hana. Hana felt a teardrop land on her head as she rested her cheek on the other woman’s chest. They lay there for a long while, with only the wind and Satya’s delicate sniffles as background noise.

“So I am chaperoning the Junkers,” Satya murmured at one point, her voice still a bit wobbly. “That is at least serving some purpose, I suppose.”

“Yeah, it is.” Hana closed her eyes. “And you’re my stand-in big sister now, remember? I’m holding you to that.”

“Ah, yes.” Hana could hear a smile in Satya’s voice. “You are right. I have sisterly duties to attend to, don’t I?”

“Mhm.” Hana allowed herself to relax on Satya. “You’re not going anywhere until I get nineteen years’ worth of the sibling experience I missed out on.”

Satya actually chuckled at that. “Well then, I will see what I can do.”

Hana could have stayed there, relaxing in the warm sun, forever. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be – something exploded inside the house, scaring the hell out of both Hana and Satya. Hana leapt to her feet and hurried back inside. In doing so she ran straight into Junkrat, who was just standing in the middle of the room with a depressed detonator in one hand.

“Jeez, man, you scared me.” Her heart was still racing. After all she’d been through she was more than a little wired.

Junkrat continued to stare at her. “My bombs never scared you before.”

“Because I was expecting them…?” Hana made a face. “Why are you acting weird?”

“Why are you still best pals with that Indian lady?”

“Because she’s a good person? Vishkar was using her, but now she’s away from them. I think she’s starting to realize they’re bad news.”

“Oh sure, sure. Yeah, we should definitely trust her!”

“I know it seems hard to believe, Jamie,” Hana put extra emphasis on his real name to command his full attention, “but I lived with her for over a month. She’s an ally, a friend to the Junkers. If it wasn’t for her we’d all still be trapped there. Hell, you guys might not even be _alive_ right now if it wasn’t for her.”

Junkrat turned and walked away from her, but stopped before he got too far. “You still got that chip in your skull,” he said without turning around. “Now suddenly you’re bestest pals with a Vishkar suit. How do we know we can trust you at all?”

“You think I’m gonna–”

“How do we know she’s not gonna set you loose on us in the night and tell you to kill us all? Or worse, take us back to that hellhole corporation? I ain’t goin’ back, Hana.”

Hana swallowed. There was no way for Junkrat, or any of them for that matter, to know for sure that she was trustworthy now. She was a liability to them. A risk. And she couldn’t even be mad at them for feeling that way.

“I’m not under their control anymore, Jamie.” Hana spoke in a low, small voice. “Trust me, I could feel it when I was. Everything was all weird, like being on drugs 24/7. I feel totally clearheaded now.”

Junkrat folded his arms and stared out one of Satya’s perfectly symmetrical window constructions. “’Course. Then that lady says the right word and suddenly you’re strangling us to death in our sleep like a goddamn sleeper agent.”

“Jamie that doesn’t happen in real life.”

“How do you know it doesn’t??”

Hana exhaled. “You really don’t trust me.”

When he didn’t answer, she closed the gap between them and came to stand beside him. He crossed his arms tighter and rotated so as to still be facing away from her. “Christ, Deevs, it’s not – it’s not like I don’t _want_ to. But I ain’t gettin’ captured again. I’m _done_ with that shit.”

“Me too! Because I’m not loyal to them anymore. I never really was!”

Finally, Junkrat turned and met her stare. But all he said was, “Me ‘n Roadhog are leavin’.”

“What??”

“We just…gotta get away from all this crap for a while. We’re going to do what we decided to do way back at the prison.”

“Jamie–”

“We’re leavin’ now. Just the two of us. Maybe we’ll come back someday, but for now…” He exhaled, his gaunt shoulders dropping. “I just gotta get away from all this mess.”

Hana bit her lip. “…Fine. I understand.”

Junkrat straightened his spine, trying desperately to appear stoic. “If you’re fine and not bein’ controlled by Vishkar or whatever, then you’ll still be around whenever we come back. Right?”

“I don’t know where I’ll be.” It was the truth – these days she had no idea where would end up from day to day.

“We’ll find ya.”

Roadhog appeared from another room, a small bag of belongings slung over one shoulder. Hana couldn’t bear to look at either of them. After all this, they were just leaving? She couldn’t hate them for it, because it wasn’t like they hadn’t made their goal clear from the very start. They wanted to achieve international infamy, and staying with a girl who was possibly still brainwashed and an agent of the corporation that did the brainwashing was hardly the way to ensure that goal was met. But that didn’t make it hurt any less.

Junkrat hovered around her as if he wanted to say or do something but didn’t know how to initiate it. “Bye, Jamie,” was all Hana could make herself say to him before he left.

The two slipped out the back door without another word. Hana watched them disappear into the sand-blown distance. As she did her hands balled into fists, so tight her nails chewed into the flesh of her palms. It took everything she had not to burst into tears. That was part of her family walking away. And they were walking away from _her_ specifically. They no longer felt safe around her, and she couldn’t blame them in the least.

Once they had vanished completely from her sight Hana swallowed around the lump in her throat and unclenched her fists. She looked to the closed door on the opposite side of the room.

* * *

 

“I can’t blame them for not trusting me.”

Ana held Hana as she cried weakly into her chest. “I don’t even know if I trust myself.” Her words were obscured by the fabric of Ana’s cloak. She wasn’t sure if Ana could hear her. She wasn’t sure she wanted Ana to hear her.

Ana didn’t say much, opting instead to simply pat her on the back and occasionally wipe her tears away with a thumb.

“Maybe you all shouldn’t trust me. Maybe you should just leave me out here by myself. That way I can’t be a danger to anybody.”

“Hana,” Ana whispered, “don’t say such things. You know yourself. You know that you are not a threat to your friends.”

Hana pressed her forehead against Ana’s shirt. Her fists balled into the fabric. Her brain was so screwed up. Before all this she was never the clingy, emotional type. Now she couldn’t stop crying and hanging on to anyone who so much as spoke to her. _Is it because of the radiation? Or the brain damage Vishkar probably did to me? So much has happened I barely even know who I am anymore._

“While we were separated from you, Vanessa mentioned returning to her parents.” Ana ran a hand through Hana's small amount of hair. “Perhaps the two of you would be better off back in a full family unit.”

“No, I want to stay with you.”

Ana did not respond. Eventually Hana pulled back a little and looked up at her. “You’re staying with us, right?”

Ana avoided looking at her. “I plan on returning to Egypt very soon.”

“What? Why?”

Ana smiled down at her, though the smile was heavy, as if trying to cut through a veil of sadness. “You are a sweet girl, Hana. You have reminded me of how much I miss my Fareeha.”

“Oh.” Hana bit her lip. Of course Ana didn’t want to stay here. She wasn’t Hana’s mother. She had a real daughter to return to. “Maybe I could come with you?”

Ana shook her head. “I have to reconnect with some other people as well. They are old friends of mine, but they are dangerous. I don’t want you any more endangered than you have already been.”

“So when will you leave?”

“As soon as everyone here is all right with it. I’d like to make sure you have a safe place to stay first.”

“Will you ever come back?”

Ana paused for a long moment. “I’m not sure what the future will hold for me,” she said. “I would like to say yes, but truly I do not know.”

Hana sank down face-first into the bedsheets. “I need to go talk to Boss,” she mumbled.

Ana stroked her back again. “That’s probably a good idea. I promise I will not leave you until you are ready.”

Hana reluctantly sat up. Her eyes were stinging and her cheeks were crusty with a mixture of sand and the salt from her dried tears. With a sniff, she said, “I’ll go talk to her.”

* * *

 

She didn’t even have to go looking for Boss. The other girl’s presence radiated out to her, a constant flicker of static in the back of Hana’s mind. She opened one of the identical hard light doors to find Boss loitering by a window. A cold tingle coursed its way up her spine and across the flesh of her neck. Boss didn’t turn around. She didn’t have to.

“Are you okay?” Boss asked.

“Yeah. I’ll be all right.” Hana sat down on the bed in this room, identical to the one in the other room. “You?”

“I’m fine. I was just thinking about stuff.”

Hana cleared her throat. When Boss glanced over her shoulder Hana gestured for the other girl to come sit beside her on the bed. Boss shrugged off her filthy jacket and laid it on the windowsill. Beneath it she wore only a dingy white tank top. Hana had never really gotten a good look at her bare arms – they were surprisingly well-defined. She felt a small urge to reach out and touch them, but she refrained from doing so.

Boss sat down beside her and rested her elbows on her thighs. “I’ve been thinking about my parents. I should probably get back into contact with them at some point.”

“They don’t know you’re still around?”

Boss shook her head. “I know, I feel like an asshole. But you don’t know them, they were – I mean, they were good parents, but sometimes it felt like they had me in a chokehold.” She shifted her weight a little. “…Sorry. I know I should be thankful I have them at all.”

Hana stared at the floor. “Junkrat and Roadhog are gone.”

“Gone?” Boss tilted her head. “Where’d they go?”

“They don’t trust me or Satya. So they took off.”

“Damn. I’m sorry, Hana.” Boss fidgeted a little. “I mean, you know I didn’t like Roadhog, but I know you cared about them. I hope I didn’t have anything to do with them wanting to leave.”

Hana leaned back against the wall. “Ana’s leaving, too.”

“Seriously?”

“She wants to get back to Egypt, to be with her daughter.”

“Well I guess I can’t fault her for that.” Boss shrugged. “We’re not her kids.”

“I wish I was.” Hana had never vocalized that thought, or even really thought it through in her head. Apparently her mouth was more in tune with her brain than the rest of her was.

Boss studied her with soft eyes. “You really care about her, huh.”

Hana stared out the window. “I just miss having parents.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Hana picked at the hot pink nail polish she’d chosen and applied while at Vishkar. It was a nice color, and in any other circumstance she might not have minded it, but she couldn’t look at it without thinking of all that had transpired. Likewise, her stupid bodysuit was cooking her in this heat. She wanted to shed it all.

“So, uh,” Boss folded her hands behind her head in an attempt to seem casual. “Satya’s really something, huh? I wonder if she has a boyfriend...”

“Don’t go hitting on Satya,” Hana snapped. “She’s been through enough already.”

Boss held her hands up. “Whoa, I didn’t say I was gonna hit on her. I was just saying–”

Hana crossed her arms and looked away from Boss.

“Jeez Hana, I’m not going to–”

“What about me?”

“Huh?”

Hana crossed her arms tighter. “I thought you liked _me_.”

Boss blinked a few times. “I do. But you’re not interested.”

“How do you know I’m not?”

Boss gaped. “…Are you?”

Hana shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t mind kissing you.”

Boss leaned over to force eye contact between them. “Are you shitting me? You’re telling me all this time I actually had a chance here?” She waved her hand between the two of them.

A tiny smile formed on Hana’s lips. “I don’t know. Maybe you have to seduce me.”

“Well lucky for you I’m a master of seduction.”

Hana snorted. “Yeah, right–”

Boss wrapped an arm around Hana’s waist and pulled her in for a surprise kiss. Their teeth accidentally clacked together on impact, causing Hana to recoil. “Ow!”

“Shit, sorry!” Boss covered her mouth with her hand. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Hana ran her tongue over her teeth. “I guess it’s a good thing Vishkar filed these down, or I might’ve bit your lip off.”

“Maybe I’m into that.”

“Oh yeah?”

They reunited for a better kiss, this time with the two of them appropriately tilting their heads so as not to slam their teeth together. Hana drew in close to Boss’ chest and let the other girl wrap both arms around her. They fit together nicely, Boss just slightly taller than Hana, with just enough meat to make her comfortable to lean into. Of course her kissing was just as sloppy as last time, but at least during this kiss it was obvious she was taking her time and pacing herself rather than acting like she was going to eat Hana’s face off. Hana rested a hand on the side of Boss’ face, subtly guiding her into a good rhythm.

In the middle of their makeout session suddenly Boss started laughing. She pulled away from Hana to catch her breath. Hana smiled uncertainly. “What?”

“Sorry. I just remembered the first time we met. How you came smashing through the wall of my office at the prison.”

Hana’s smile evolved into a full grin. “I remember that! Junkrat told me to!”

“This gorgeous girl busts into my office in a refurbished power loader and thinks I might not accept her into the Junkers.” Boss smirked. “Did you really think I wasn’t going to let you join?”

“I wasn’t sure! You seemed so serious.”

“I know. I’m scary like that.” Boss settled her hands on Hana’s waist. A pleasant jolt of sensation coursed through Hana’s body. She leaned up and kissed along Boss’ jawline, culminating in their lips meeting again. One of Boss’ hands worked its way up Hana’s back, gently moving up and down. The warmth spread in waves through Hana’s body, the best she’d felt since Vishkar had been messing with her brain.

When they parted again, it was Hana who initiated it. “…Vanessa?” Using Boss’ real name felt a little odd, but in such an intimate setting calling her by a nickname just felt weird. Boss seemed to feel the same way, for she raised an eyebrow but remained locked in a tight embrace with her.

“I’ve been through so much crap,” Hana continued. “I could really use some stress relief.”

Boss stared at her for a long moment. “You want, like, a massage or something?”

“Um, something like that.”

“That’s what you meant, right?”

“…Sort of...”

Boss pushed her locs out of her face, fixing Hana with a full stare. Hana leaned in and kissed Boss on the cheek. When she drew back she searched Boss’ eyes. She wasn’t sure how to convey her thoughts outright. It felt too awkward.

Thankfully Boss seemed to pick up on what she meant. “You want to…?”

Hana reached around and unzipped the back of her bodysuit as best she could. Upon realizing she couldn’t get it all the way off herself, Boss hesitantly reached over and, with Hana’s nod of approval, helped her emerge from the suit. Hana immediately latched herself onto Boss, letting the other girl run her hands over Hana’s exposed flesh. They melded together into another kiss.

It wasn’t long before Hana was pushing Boss down onto the bed. “Thank you,” she whispered as she guided Boss’ hands up under the soft cloth of her bra.

“Uh, you’re – you’re welcome.” Boss looked like she was liable to faint at any moment, but she held herself together and pulled Hana down on top of her. Their legs tangled together, Hana settled herself on top of Boss, who was already pulling her tank top off. “I, um…”

“Hm?” Hana trailed her fingers up Boss’ stomach. She paused to toy with the little satin bow in the center of Boss’ cute purple bra.

Boss averted her eyes. “I, uh, love you. And stuff.”

That brought a genuine smile to Hana’s face. “That’s really gay.”

“Oh, shut up.” Boss flipped onto her side, forcing Hana to grab tight to her to avoid falling off the bed. Hana slapped her arm. Boss stuck her tongue out, which was, of course, an invitation for Hana to lean in and bite it. They both dissolved into a fit of giggles. It didn’t take long for Boss’ tongue to slip inside Hana’s mouth, just as clumsy and forceful as the girl it was attached to. Hana ran her own tongue along the underside of Boss’. Boss’ eyes widened and she pulled back for a moment. “Okay, I have literally no idea what I’m doing, but that felt weirdly good. Is that what you’re supposed to do when you use your tongue?”

“Honestly? I have no idea what you’re ‘supposed’ to do. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning, forget bedroom tips from years ago.” She cupped Boss’ face in her hands. “But if you like it, I’ll do more stuff like that.”

Boss nodded shyly. And so she and Hana resumed exploring each other’s mouths while their hands explored each other’s bodies – and as they did so Hana picked up a bizarre memory somewhere in the fog of her mind. The scenario felt familiar, as if she had done it before. Or at least something similar, with some other girl somewhere in the past. Had she always had feelings like this?

Concentrating on the fleeting thought a bit more intensely, Hana could recall a little more of it. It happened after school one afternoon. She had invited one of her girl friends over, a nerdy, somewhat oddball girl who sat at her lunch table and liked to play video games as much as Hana did. What had started out as a couch gaming session had quickly turned into something neither of them had anticipated. Hana could remember now.

She withdrew from Boss. “I’m bi,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” Boss didn’t seem too fazed by the revelation. She was already trying to resume their kiss again.

Hana held her back for a second. “I’ve been calling myself bi for a few years now. I can’t believe I forgot that…I wonder what else I’ve forgotten about myself…”

Boss ran a hand through Hana’s hair. “You’ll remember it all eventually. I mean, you remembered that.”

“Because I was racking my brain trying to think of why I was so attracted to another girl.”

Boss smiled a little. “You’re attracted to me?”

“I’m about to have sex with you, aren’t I?”

“Well yeah, but maybe I’m just a last resort.”

Hana reached around and unhooked her bra, tossing it to the floor. She leaned down into Boss, her bare chest brushing the other girl’s exposed flesh. “Shut up,” she whispered into her ear, then smirked as goosebumps broke out across Boss’ otherwise-smooth skin. A low, sexy growl rumbled deep in Boss’ throat as Hana nibbled at her ear. Boss’ strong hands seized Hana’s scrawny body and held her firmly in place. As Hana kissed her throat Boss slid one hand down to Hana’s backside and gave it a small squeeze. Hana pulled away and made a face at her. Boss tugged her back down, capturing her in another kiss.

Hana sighed into Boss’ mouth as she felt a cautious, slightly shaky hand slip down into her underwear. She closed her eyes and let the sweetness of the moment overtake her.

* * *

 

Hana hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep until she woke up, still naked, in Boss’ arms. To her surprise, Boss seemed to be asleep as well. Hana nudged her. Sure enough, Boss opened one glassy eye and murmured “Huh? Was I…asleep?”

“I thought you didn’t have to sleep?” Hana made a half-hearted grab for her bra, but it was too far away to reach.

“I thought not, either. Guess you really wore me out.”

They both grinned.

“Man, that was great.” Boss rolled over on her back and sighed. “Almost worth dying a virgin for.”

Hana drew the weird translucent hard light blanket up over her chest and cuddled up to Boss. “I can’t reach my bra,” she murmured, “and my nips are freezing.”

Boss snorted. “Here, I’ll help.” She grabbed Hana’s chest with both hands.

“Ah, no, your hands are even colder!” Hana squirmed.

“Shoulda thought of that before you complained.” Boss released her, then got up and grabbed Hana’s bra for her. “Here.”

Hana put it on, then swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “Now where the heck are my underwear?” Snickering, Boss pointed behind her. Hana turned to find them dangling halfway off the nightstand beside the bed. “Oh.”

Boss didn’t seem too wary of her own nakedness. She sat back down on the bed, crossed her legs, and stared out the window while Hana reluctantly prepared to zip back into her bodysuit.

“Really wish I had some other clothes,” Hana murmured.

“You want my jacket? It’ll be more than long enough on you.”

“I don’t want to wear your smelly old jacket.” Belying her words, she was already bending to pick it up off the windowsill. While she was bent over she heard Boss chuckle to herself. “Are you looking at my butt?”

“Me? Never.”

With a tiny smile Hana wiggled it a little.

“Okay, _now_ I’m looking at it.” Boss hopped up off the bed. On the way to grab her boxers off the floor she reached over and pinched Hana’s backside. Hana’s cheeks pinkened. When Boss was turned around she snuck up behind her and pinched her harder. “Ow! …Guess I had that coming.”

Boss’ jacket fit Hana and then some. It reached past her knees, and when she buttoned it one almost couldn’t even tell she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. Boss pulled on her tank top and jeans beside her. As she did so Hana let herself steal a glance over at the other girl. Boss apparently had the same idea, and they caught each other in the act. Hana blushed deeper. Boss just grinned.

Once they were dressed, Hana actually took the time to ponder how long they had been asleep. She guessed it was only probably an hour or so at most, for the sun was down but it was not yet fully dark out. _I hope Ana didn’t leave._ She’d said she wouldn’t go without telling Hana, but Hana had no idea if she could trust Ana’s word about that sort of thing.

She was hesitant to even leave the bedroom, afraid of what she would discover when she did. Boss seemed to pick up on her hesitation. She took Hana’s hand and gave it a tiny squeeze. Hana let Boss lead her out the door and into the small living room of the hard light house.

The first sight they came upon was Satya sitting in an armchair that had definitely not existed an hour ago, her thumb and index finger rubbing a handful of her dress while she studied a projection laid out in front of her.

“Hey.” Hana approached her. Satya glanced up, adjusting her visor.

“Oh, hello. Are you finished with your…”

Hana and Boss exchanged a look, then Hana shifted her focus back to Satya. “My…?”

Satya waved a hand between the two girls. “You were…quite…audible.”

Hana’s face boiled red hot. Boss covered her mouth with one hand.

“Worry not.” Satya resumed studying whatever she was studying. “I shall not judge you. In fact…”

Hana raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Satya rested her chin on one hand. A tiny smile curled her lips. “I am almost a bit…envious. In my youth I always enjoyed tales of romance. But I was never able to experience it for myself.”

“Does Vishkar not allow that sort of thing?”

“It is not forbidden, but it is highly discouraged. In recent years there has been a program put in place to provide the live-in Architechs with artificial families – Vishkar androids. To me it always seemed sad and a bit pathetic, but some of the Architechs embraced it. I suppose loneliness can take its toll on those of a weaker constitution than I.”

For someone who had just gotten kicked out on her ass into the middle of an irradiated desert, Satya apparently still had an ego the size of the entire outback.

“Well you’re not dead yet.” Hana shrugged.

“Hell, even death didn’t stop me,” Boss added with a grin. Hana rolled her eyes, Boss’ grin unfortunately contagious.

Satya chuckled. “Thank you. But I have responsibilities that take priority over that sort of thing.”

Boss took a pointed look around. “Yeah, seems like you’re gonna be crazy busy out here.”

“I know! So much to log.” Satya altered the hologram in front of her, rotating it so Hana and Boss could see exactly what it was. This revealed to them several bulleted lists of notes and observations that included things like an estimation of the current temperature, notes on the (scarce) vegetation, and even a rough 3D model of the surrounding area.

“What’s all this for?” Hana could only pray she would not receive the answer she was expecting.

Of course, that was too much to hope for. “For Vishkar, of course.” Satya shrank the hologram back down and continued fiddling with it. “I did undermine the company’s security, and I will take full responsibility for my actions, but I am confident that with all the observational data I will bring back to them that they will forgive my mistakes. In fact, perhaps that is their plan to begin with. They are giving me a second chance at redemption.”

Hana and Boss exchanged a glance.

“And perhaps Vishkar can find a better use for this unique land than simply building a city atop it. Perhaps it could make for a good vacation spot, or a nature reserve. We can impose volume limits so as to keep it quiet and peaceful…yes, this is thinking _much_ more efficiently than applying a universal solution to all of our properties.”

Hana stared blankly at her as she continued prattling on about Vishkar colonizing the outback. She didn’t have the heart to tell her that something like that would never happen. The _Junkers_ could hardly survive out here. Nobody was going to want to vacation to a nuclear wasteland, nor would anyone want to even work there long enough to establish a ‘vacation spot’ on it. Especially not those snobby Architech assholes.

Boss was giving her the side-eye as well, but neither of them said anything. Once she was apparently finished with her rambling Hana immediately said, “I’m gonna go check on Ana.”

“Oh.” Satya must have noticed their lack of interest in her topic, for her demeanor changed at Hana’s shift in topic. “She was pacing a bit earlier, but I believe she has retired to one of the bedrooms I created.”

“Okay, thanks.” Hana started off toward one of the closed doors.

Before she could reach it Satya spoke up again behind her. “Where are the two male Junkers who were accompanying us?”

Hana stopped. In her still-groggy state she had nearly forgotten that Junkrat and Roadhog were gone. “So they didn’t come back?”

“No. I have not seen them since we arrived here.”

Hana reached over and opened the bedroom door before her. “They’re gone,” she said. Before Satya could ask for any elaboration she walked forward into the room and closed the door behind her.

* * *

 

Upon stepping inside the room Hana discovered Ana sitting at a small, simple table in the corner of the room. Something on the table in front of her was glowing. Hana approached her slowly. It seemed like she either didn’t hear Hana or wasn’t paying attention to her, and Hana didn’t want to startle her.

“Ana?”

The glowing object turned out to be a portable hologram projector. Hana crouched down beside Ana and studied it. The image was that of a child – a girl with chin-length black hair bound in golden beads and an innocent, hopeful look to her face.

Ana stared down at it, saying nothing.

Hana looked from the girl to Ana and then back again. “Is that your daughter?”

In the glow of the hologram she caught sight of Ana’s good eye – and she noticed it was glittering just the faintest bit. “Ana…” Her first instinct was to console her, but she restrained herself from doing so. Ana did not seem like the type to want to be coddled.

“I wanted to write to her,” Ana murmured, “before I see her again. I wanted to explain everything that happened. But so many years have passed now – I have no idea the kind of woman she’s grown up to be. I don’t even know where to begin.” She reached out with one hand and lightly brushed the hologram. The image disrupted for a moment, but quickly reformed itself. “You never imagine you could someday be at a loss for words with your own child.”

Hana remained crouched at Ana’s side, but said nothing. No advice she could dispense would be useful. Ana must have known that, for she did not seem to expect an answer out of her.

“All this time I remained with the Junkers,” she added after a long silence, “I stayed to protect you, Hana. You were so vulnerable. I planned to set off on my own long before now, long before Vishkar, even – but every time I looked at you I just saw Fareeha. Alone, waiting for her mother to come home. But now…”

“Hey, Deevs, did ya find her?” Boss’ voice rang out through the tiny house. “You kinda just…shut the door, so I didn’t want to, um, I didn’t want to intrude or anything.”

Ana returned her attention to the hologram, giving Hana the unspoken go-ahead to respond.

“Yeah,” Hana called back, “she’s in here. We’re just talking.”

“Oh, okay. Good. Well, me and Satya are gonna go look for something edible for you guys before it gets too dark to see. Hope you don’t mind eating bugs, because that’s probably the majority of what we’re gonna find out there.”

“I would sooner teleport us somewhere to find actual food.” Satya’s faint voice just barely passed through the door. “Perhaps you lot are comfortable eating insects, but I am absolutely _not_ …”

Their voices trailed off, leaving Hana and Ana in silence again. Ana returned her attention to Hana. Her expression was just a bit less solemn then. “I know this is not ideal for you, Hana, but I feel that you are safe enough with Satya and Vanessa. They have each proven themselves more than once. I would remain if I could, but–”

“It’s okay, Ana.” Hana stopped her. “I understand.”

Suddenly Hana was drawn into a fierce, motherly bear hug by the other woman. Ana held fast to her for several long seconds. “You’ve taught me a lot of things, Hana,” she whispered. “You are a sweet, kind, gentle girl with so much love to give. I hope you will never lose those qualities.”

Hana hugged her tight. “I’ll try not to.”

Ana released her with a small smile. “We will see each other again. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Maybe you and Fareeha can both visit.”

“I hope so. Though I shudder to think of the two of you together. Two of the most hard-headed girls I’ve ever met.” Ana’s smile grew.

“Really? Is she like me?”

“In some ways.”

“You have to introduce us someday. Seriously.”

“I will try my very hardest.” Ana ruffled her hair. “For you.”

With that, Hana plunked herself down on the bed and rested her chin on her palms. “Tell me about her.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Whatever you want to talk about.”

Ana settled herself in beside Hana. “Well, we come from a long line of decorated soldiers in Egypt. Fareeha grew up around that lifestyle, and, just like her mother, she always wanted to be a hero…”

Hana leaned on her shoulder and simply listened.

* * *

 

Sanjay held tight to the framed picture on his desk. His hand shook as he stared at the smiling faces of his family.

“All right. I upheld my end of the deal.” He tried to steel his voice as much as possible. “Now you let them go.”

The masked hacker on the holovid in front of him waggled a finger. “There’s one more condition to our deal.”

“What? You said if I sent them away you’d let them go!”

“Yeah, well, you don’t exactly have a say in this.”

Sanjay’s fingers tightened on the photo frame. “What more do you want from me?”

The hacker folded their arms. “Now that my eyes and ears into Vishkar are gone, you’re gonna be my new inside guy. Everything you see and hear at Vishkar you report back to me. Oh, and you take my ‘suggestions’ into account when you meet with your coworkers. The first one being ‘don’t touch the outback _or_ Dorado anymore’.”

“I’ll lose my job.” He set the photo down on the desk. “You don’t understand, this is – Vishkar is my whole life. This is all I’ve been trained to do since I was ten years old. I don’t have any other options.”

“Not my problem.” The hacker adjusted their mask a bit. “And besides, you expect people to take pity on your sad little life when you were more than happy to kill all those Junkers and those civilians in Calado?”

“I do what I have to do,” he muttered.

“Same here.” They reached off-screen. When they returned to the center of the screen, Sanjay gritted his teeth. The hacker had his little girl, Prisha, gripped by the arm. Her eyes were blank and unfocused, and she was limp in the hacker’s grasp.

“You let her go!” Sanjay leapt out of his chair. “I’ll kill you!”

“Oh _relax_ , Sanjay. I’m not going to hurt her. Unless you give me a reason to.”

Sanjay clenched his fists. “Okay. Okay. I’ll do what you want. Just…don’t hurt them.”

The hacker turned Prisha around. Her back panel was unscrewed and hanging wide open. With a gentle pat the hacker closed it up and switched her on. Her eyes glowed to life, then immediately latched on to Sanjay. “Daddy?”

“Don’t worry, baby. Daddy’ll keep you safe.” His teeth ground together, but he tried his hardest to appear neutral. “What did you do to her?”

“Oh, nothing! She and I just had some time to _bond_ , that’s all.” The hacker chuckled. “She’s going to make sure you follow through with our agreement.”

Sanjay struggled to quell the shaking of his hands. “You altered her programming.”

“No shit.”

He picked the photograph back up, unable to bear the sight of his little girl in the hands of the terrorist before him. “Vishkar gave them to me seven years ago. A reward for my loyalty to the company.” He inhaled slowly, the palm of his hand leaving a residual layer of sweat on the photo frame. “If I get caught giving you Vishkar’s information, I’ll lose my job…and I’ll lose them.”

“That’s why you won’t let yourself get caught.”

He nodded. “All right. All right. Fine.” Finally working up the nerve to meet the hacker’s eye again, he said, “so you want Vishkar to stay out of the outback…and Dorado.”

“Among other things.”

“So you’re allied with the Junkers?”

“I have groups of allies all over the world. The Junkers are just one of them.”

Sanjay stared at the hacker for a long time. Their mask revealed nothing, no emotion, no sign of weakness. “Okay,” he said. “All right. I’ll report everything to you. I swear I will.”

“Good boy.” The hacker reached over and laid a gloved hand on Prisha’s shoulder. “In the meantime she and I are gonna hang out for a while.”

“Don’t you lay a hand on–”

“ _¡Hasta luego!_ ” The hacker disconnected, leaving nothing but a screen full of static to illuminate the office.

Sanjay slammed his fist on the desk. _I thought just sending them away would be enough._ He stole one last glance at the picture of his family, now covered in fingerprints and sweat. The only thing he had in this entire world. What Vishkar had given him…he could not allow it to be taken away now.

 _Maybe this is how Hana felt when we took her away from the other Junkers._ He tried to push that thought away, but it lingered within him.

Steadying his hands, he powered up his computer and entered the password to access the company’s intranet. His eyes scanned every bit of information he could find – no longer for his own use or benefit. Not even for the benefit of that hacker asshole or the Junkers. His family was in danger. Human or not, their lives meant everything to him. They were all he had to care about in this sick, sad world.

He opened the folder for the outback development, locked behind a password known only by himself and the other high-level Architechs, and a fingerprint scan. With a steadying breath, he began to download as much information as he could access.

* * *

 

Hana woke up to Ana nudging her. She was apparently curled up on the bed with a blanket over her, but she had no memory of taking Ana’s blanket for her own use. Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes and focused on Ana standing over her.

“You nodded off.”

“Oh. Sorry. I’m still really exhausted…”

“No, no, it’s all right. I just wanted to let you know that I’m leaving.”

That snapped Hana wide awake. “You’re leaving? Now?”

“It will be easier traveling before the sun rises. Less risk of overheating.”

Her rifle was slung over her shoulder and her hood was up, concealing her long white hair underneath.

“Can’t Satya teleport you wherever you’re going?”

Ana shook her head. “I’d like to make the trip on my own. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

Hana wasn’t sure what to say beyond that. Ana didn’t seem certain either, for she instead just headed for the door. Hana followed her, but they both paused at the sound of faint voices elsewhere in the makeshift house. She glanced out the window – it was still pitch black outside. She knew Boss didn’t have to sleep, but was Satya really awake, too?

Hana nudged the door open. Sure enough, the voices belonged to Satya and Boss. _Yeah, I know that feeling._ Boss’ voice drifted through the doorway. _The Junkers here are actually – I mean, it sounds pathetic, but they’re the first people I’ve ever really considered friends._

_I don’t find it pathetic. Even prior to Vishkar recruiting me I did not have much in the way of a social life. I…was not the easiest of children to deal with._

_So when did you realize you were autistic, anyway? I mean, if that’s not too personal to ask–_

_Not too personal. I think Vishkar suspected it immediately, but I was not formally diagnosed until I was twelve years old. And it made so much sense! The psychologist I met with broke it to me as if it were some terrible news, but I could not have been happier to finally possess an explanation for the recurring dissonance between myself and those around me._

_That makes sense. Unfortunately for me I was just a loser._ She laughed, but Satya tutted at her.

 _You have survived a grave ordeal – multiple ordeals, really. I should hardly think you qualify as a ‘loser’_.

 _Ha, thanks, but…_ Boss turned away and grinned. In turning she caught sight of Hana peeking through the doorway. “Oh man, I’m sorry.” Her voice rose in volume to better reach Hana. “Did we wake you guys up?”

“No.” Hana emerged from Ana’s bedroom to find Boss and Satya settled in on a sofa that definitely wasn’t there before, Boss turned sideways with her legs crossed, facing Satya. They seemed quite settled in. “Have you two been up all night?”

“I cannot sleep in unfamiliar environments,” Satya replied. “Eventually I will tire enough to do so, but for now I am wide awake.”

“We’ve just been chatting all night. I was telling her about the prison, and a little about my life before that.”

“I find your situation utterly fascinating.” Satya studied Boss with clear curiosity in her eyes. “Caught between life and death – how do you feel about that? Does it affect your spiritual beliefs at all? I’d imagine it must.”

Boss shrugged. “I’m not a hugely religious person, but I believe in some kind of God out there. The way I came to terms with it was by telling myself that there must be some reason I’m still here. Like, something I was meant to do.”

Hana coughed. Boss broke out into a grin. “That is _not_ what I meant…although, that too.” She rested an elbow on the sofa’s armrest and leaned back. “Yeah, God kept me on this earth so I could have sex with Hana Song. The universe’s greatest wingman.”

Hana wanted to join them on the sofa, but Ana’s lingering presence behind her made her hesitate. Upon returning her attention to Ana, however, she found the old woman bore the slightest hint of a smile on her lips. She remembered then Ana’s words from the night before – she wanted Hana to remain and be happy with Boss and Satya. Even if she may not have trusted them entirely, she trusted them enough.

Hana exchanged a long look with Ana, who refused to show any other emotion she may have been experiencing. “I think I’ll be okay here,” Hana said.

“I think so, too.”

“So are you leaving now?” Boss asked.

“Wait, who’s leaving?” Concern chilled Satya’s voice.

“I am.” Ana adjusted the rifle on her back. “And I am entrusting you with the lives of these two girls.” She gestured to Hana and Boss. “Should something happen to either of them while under your supervision, you will have to answer to me about it.” Hana could tell Ana was just messing around, but Satya did not take it that way.

“Of course. That is why I am still here in the first place. I am looking after the Junkers.”

Ana closed the gap between them and pushed into Satya’s personal space. “Don’t make me regret this.”

“You have nothing to worry about, I assure you.” Satya took a step back from Ana, holding her hands up a bit defensively. “They will not come to harm under my guardianship.”

Ana narrowed her visible eye at Satya, but backed off of her. Satya breathed a visible sigh of relief.

Hana followed Ana to the door as she headed out. “Say hi to Fareeha for me,” she said. “I mean, she won’t know who I am, so tell her who I am and _then_ tell her I said hi?”

Ana chuckled. “Of course.” She paused just outside the house. The sky was a deep purple, indicating that the sun was just beginning to rise. After gazing out over the horizon Ana turned back to Hana and Boss. Hana decided at the last second to try for one last hug. Ana was receptive to it, and in fact actually hugged her for quite a bit longer than Hana would have expected. Then she even hugged Boss, who seemed completely stunned by the act.

“You girls be good, all right?” Ana waggled a finger at them. “Don’t burden Satya with more than she can handle.”

“Jeez, Ana, we’re _adults_.” Hana rolled her eyes and huffed in a mocking fashion. “We won’t get into any trouble.”

“Oh, of course.” Ana shook her head and smiled a little. “How could I be so foolish?”

Hana was happy for the banter – it helped to distract her from the reality that someone she had spent months growing a close bond with was now willingly walking out of her life, possibly forever. As soon as Ana started off, however, those feelings hit her like a truck. Thankfully Boss grabbed her up in her arms and whispered reassurances, preventing her from sinking too deep into the miserable thoughts in her head. She walked Hana away from the door, murmuring gently to her, “C’mon, let’s find something to do. There’s plenty of stuff to do around here.”

Hana drew in a deep breath. “Okay.”

It could be worse, she reminded herself as Boss led her around the small house making pointless commentary about everything they passed. Ana, Junkrat, and Roadhog all could have died at Vishkar. They were on the chopping block and _would_ have died, if not for the two women she was with now. Boss may have been rough around the edges, but her heart was soft and full of love to give. Satya had a variety of issues, but when it came down to it she put everything she knew on the line to protect a girl she only just barely knew.

Maybe Ana was right. Maybe they could make a half-decent makeshift family for themselves.

“Oh my God, you know what we need?” Boss interrupted her thoughts with her exclamation. “A pet! But like, a cool, badass pet…maybe we can tame a dingo or something.”

“I _would_ like to observe some of the local wildlife,” Satya said. “Perhaps not as pets, but…”

Hana listened quietly as they exchanged grandiose ideas, both obviously trying to distract from the absence of half the Junkers. It would never be the same, but maybe it didn’t have to be. After all, family was what you made it, right?

She swallowed down the lump in her throat and mustered what could perhaps be considered a smile. _I’ll finally have a real home for once. Some peace and quiet, some people who will protect me if anything bad happens._

It might not last forever, but it was something she could cling to in the present moment. That was the most she could ask for anymore. In fact, she thought as Boss grabbed her hand and continued gushing her big ideas for their little trio, maybe it was a little more than that. Maybe it was even better than what she'd had before.

The questionable smile on her face grew unmistakable. Yeah, things were going to be all right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, at the end of the story! The epilogue will be uploaded next weekend. We'll see how well Hana's getting along with her new family...and they may find time to get into a few more shenanigans before their tale is all told. :P
> 
> Thank you so much for sticking with me through this story, my official Longest Fanfic Ever! I'm super proud of it and I'm a little sad it's gonna be over next week. :') Hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!!
> 
> Havoka


	20. Neither One Lets Go (Epilogue)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: All jokes made at the expense of tall female characters come from a place of love, as I myself am a Tall Female Character (wait that's not right-)

“Are you not happy?”

Hana lifted her head from the armrest of the cold, smooth hard light chair. “What makes you think that.”

“You seem…somber.”

Their exchange resonated through the massive room, bouncing off the high ceiling and the smooth floors, both an identical shade of ice blue. The entire ‘house’ Satya had constructed was like that, and felt more like a crystal castle now than a cozy little home in the outback. And it was only growing bigger, and further removed from the outdoors, with each passing day. Satya toiled at it like it was her only purpose. Each day she added another hallway or chamber. The place was starting to feel more like an anthill than a house.

Hana glanced out one of the high, arched windows of the room. Satya’s designs for the rooms had started out smooth and flawlessly symmetrical, but as time wore on they’d devolved into jagged and almost cavernous layouts. “Just miss going outside, I guess.”

Satya pursed her lips and stared at her for a long moment. Then she broke out into a grin, exposing two rows of pearl-white teeth that seemed a lot pointier than Hana remembered. “Oh, Hana, why in the world would you want that? You know it isn’t safe out there. And I have a promise to Ana to uphold, to protect you from any harm.” She strode over to Hana and picked up the plate on the table before her. “You’ve barely eaten.”

“I just ate this morning. I’m not hungry yet.”

“You must eat. You are scrawny enough already.” She picked up the spoonful of stale, dry cereal Boss had acquired in a trade in Junkertown. Hana turned away, keeping her mouth closed as Satya tried to force it on her. “Why must you be so difficult about this?”

“Because I– _guh!_ ” Satya shoved the spoon into her mouth. With her other hand she moved Hana’s jaw from side to side.

“Chew and swallow.”

Rolling her eyes, Hana swallowed, then stuck out her tongue to prove that the food was gone.

“Good. You will thank me for taking care of you like this when you are not dying out in the desert.”

Without responding, Hana got up from her seat and walked away. “Hana?” Satya called after her. “Where are you going?”

“I’m gonna go hang out with Boss.”

Satya watched her walk away, the spoon dissolving in her hand.

* * *

 

The long hallways of their bizarre desert castle threw the sound of her footsteps back at her as Hana sought Boss out. The place had so many rooms – there was absolutely no need for the vast majority of them. Yet Satya kept compulsively building them, almost as if she couldn’t resist colonizing the outback in her own way.

“Vanessa?” Hana called, peeking into the various chambers as she passed them by. “Ness?”

_Hana?_ Boss called from somewhere down the hall. _Are you alone?_

“Yes?”

Boss appeared in the hallway. “Hey!” She lingered suspiciously close to the doorway she had stepped out of. Hana had known her long enough to read the look in her eyes. She was up to something.

Hana approached her with a raised eyebrow. “Hey…?”

A scratching noise on the smooth floor drew her attention to the doorway. Suddenly a massive red and brown lizard shuffled out of the room, flicking its forked tongue as it studied Hana with beady reptilian eyes. Hana stared back at it. “That’s a lizard.”

“It’s a monitor lizard.” Boss was smiling, implying that the presence of a giant lizard in her room was actually intentional and not an Australian freak accident. “It started following me while I was out scouting. I think it thought I was dying, maybe because I smell like death or something, and it was gonna eat me once I keeled over. Then I fed it one of the crickets I caught, and now it thinks I’m a food dispenser. Either way it seems like it’s sticking around.”

“You do realize Satya’s not gonna go for you keeping a giant lizard in the house, right?”

“I’ll just keep it around for a little while. If she finds out I’ll let it go.” She knelt down to the monitor and grinned at it. “You’re a cute little guy, aren’t you? Yeah, you are…”

Hana couldn’t help but smile a little at Boss’ antics. She bumped her hip into her on the way by, garnering Boss’ attention. Boss immediately hopped to her feet, grabbed Hana around the waist, and planted a kiss on her lips.

“Whoa, hey!” Hana pushed her away. “Not in front of the lizard.”

Boss burst out laughing. She waved her arms at the monitor. “Get out! You’re cockblocking me!”

The monitor instead camped itself out in the corner of her room, where a flood of sunlight filtered through one of the large windows. Hana did her best to ignore it as Boss pulled her down into her bed. Hana assumed her usual position of sitting practically on top of Boss, with one leg on either side of Boss’ waist, a position the other girl seemed to love. They linked hands, and Hana leaned down to give her another smooch.

“So how were things while I was gone?” Boss asked.

“Boring, as usual. Satya tried to force-feed me, so I guess that was something new.”

“Man, and I thought Ana didn’t always have the greatest maternal instincts.” Boss wrapped her arms around Hana and pulled her down in for another, longer kiss. Hana tried to get into it, but her thoughts on the discussion at hand were distracting her. That and the freaking lizard staring at her didn’t exactly help to set the mood.

She broke their kiss a bit prematurely. “I’m starting to wonder if it was a good idea to keep someone around who was raised by the company that wanted to keep me as a slave.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think Satya wants to turn you into a slave. I think she’s genuinely terrified of losing you and doesn’t know how to act on it the right way.” Boss reached up and stroked her cheek with the back of her hand. “Some people are just like that.”

Deep down Hana knew that was probably the truth. Satya had said herself that she had no idea how to uphold a friendship. Still, though…

Boss brought Hana’s hands to her mouth and kissed the backs of both of them. “Maybe at some point you can sit down with her and really just talk it out. Let her know you appreciate that she’s trying to protect you, but that it’s making you really unhappy. She might not listen, but it’s worth a try.”

Hana stared at her for a few seconds. “Why should I take advice from a girl who likes it when I sit on her?”

“Hey, I can be a bottom and still dispense valuable advice!”

Hana silenced her with a kiss. She felt Boss smile against her lips as she pulled Hana down onto her chest. She was just beginning to tune out her own thoughts and get into the mood – then she heard a telltale clicking of heels just outside the door. Sure enough, a few seconds later a voice followed. “Hana? Where are you?”

Boss had already started to hike up the crop top Hana had made out of the remains of her Vishkar bodysuit. Upon hearing Satya’s voice they rushed to separate from each other. Boss tossed her blanket over the monitor lizard still lounging in the room’s corner. By the time Satya entered the room Hana and Boss were sitting cross-legged opposite one another on the bed, making pretend small talk.

“Hello, Hana.” Satya was kneading her hands into the fabric of her dingy dress. Her eyes searched the floor rather than the faces of either girl.

“Hi.” Hana angled herself a bit toward her, but not completely. Boss was mostly focused on the slightly-shifting blanket in the corner of the room.

“May I speak to you? Or are you busy?”

Hana shrugged.

Satya cleared her throat and took a few steps toward her. “I realize you are unhappy with this arrangement. I am trying to protect you, but keeping you locked away from the world is not good for your physical or mental health. I know this.”

Hana shrugged again.

“I am very new at this, Hana. I have never been in a position of actively caring for a dependent life.” Satya finally met her stare. “But I have meditated on it, and I think I have finally arrived at a satisfactory compromise.”

That drew Hana’s attention a little more. “What kind of compromise?”

“Come with me.”

Hana glanced over at Boss, who waved her on. She got off the bed and followed Satya out the door. Satya strode onward with great purpose. Whatever she was planning on proposing to Hana, she must have been pretty satisfied with it.

They rounded a corner, into a newer part of the ‘house’ that Hana had yet to spend much time in. Satya led her to a jagged doorway that more closely resembled the mouth of a cave. There she paused, and instead merely gestured for Hana to go in ahead of her.

“What? What’s in h–oh my God!”

There, in all its wretched Junker glory, sat her mech. Its twisted leg was unbent and appeared fully operational. It even looked like someone had polished it. “My mech! I thought it got lost at Vishkar!”

“It did.” Satya stood beside her, wearing a tiny smile. “I retrieved it.”

“You went back to Vishkar?”

“I needed some supplies. Nothing they won’t miss.”

“I…can’t believe this. I thought it was gone forever.” After all she had been through with it the old power loader very nearly felt like a friend. It had been her shelter in the early days, her defense at the prison, and her means of transportation virtually everywhere.

The moment she climbed back into it she felt instantly reconnected with her pre-Vishkar self. _They tried so hard to take away who I am. But that part of me, it’s all still here._

She ran her hands over the control panel. “Thank you, Satya. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“It still functions, correct?”

Hana started it up. It growled to life, smog chugging from its exhaust pipes. She carefully navigated it across the room. It moved without hesitation. “Yeah, it’s perfect!”

“Good. You will need it when you accompany Vanessa on her next run into Junkertown.”

Hana’s head snapped up. “Wait, what? You want me to go with her?”

“That was my compromise, actually. I will give you my blessing to leave this place as long as you do so in your mech. And, er, preferably never by yourself.”

Hana punched the air with one of the mech’s arms. It still had all its destructive force behind it, easily enough to defend herself against some ragtag Junkers if need be. “All right. That’s fair.”

Satya laid a hand on the metal of the mech. “But…you will be careful, won’t you?”

“Definitely.”

“All right. I trust you.” She folded her arms and shifted her gaze outside the room. “Some time apart will probably be better for us, anyway.”

Hana did not vocally agree, though on the inside she certainly did. Spending months cooped up with the same person could drive you to the point of wanting to smack them over the most trivial issues. She was more than ready to put some temporary space between the two of them.

Hana opened the back hatch and leaned out. The license plate Roadhog had made for her was still welded to the truck bumper on the back of the mech, and even though Satya had apparently made an attempt to clean it, soot from Junkrat’s explosives still permeated the crevices of the metal. With a sigh she reached out and touched the rusty metal. “Roadhog made me this license plate. And all this soot is from Junkrat’s stupid homemade bombs.”

They hadn’t heard from either of them since the day Hana had watched them walk away. After one recent trip into Junkertown Boss had brought back with her a rumor that the pair had been spotted on international news, apparently for some big-time robberies in a few different European countries. The accounts from the Junkers were conflicting, though, so Hana had no idea what to truly believe.

At Satya’s lack of response Hana reached over and ran a hand over one of the softly-glowing boosters. “Boss made these for me. At least _she’s_ still here.”

“Did you ever notice the defense matrix?” Satya said then. “I installed that.”

“So that was you? Why?”

“I thought perhaps the technology could be useful to Vishkar.”

“Was it?”

“They had no interest.”

“Psh. Their loss.” Hana extended the defense matrix in front of her. She should have known it was Satya’s handiwork. It was flawless.

After testing it out, Hana then steered the mech over to the doorway. “I wonder if Boss would want to go back now. I know she was just there, but…”

Satya did not answer. She let Hana walk away, allowing her a good deal of space before following after her.

* * *

 

Being out in the sunshine again was infinitely refreshing. Hana spent a long while just sitting the mech cross-legged in the sand, turning her face to the sun. The arms of the mech were clasped together in front, with Boss draped across them.

“Hey,” Hana said at one point, “Nessa?”

“Hm?” Boss sat up a little.

“I’m glad you’re here with me.”

That brought a smile to the other girl’s face. “I’m glad to _be_ here.”

“Bet you never thought your last Junker recruit would turn out to be your most loyal one,  huh?”

“Or that that sweet, baby-faced new recruit would end up being the toughest person I’ve ever met.”

Hana flushed a bit. That seemed to have been Boss’ intended reaction, for her smile evolved into a grin and she leaned back on the arm of the mech with her hands behind her head.

In a burst of spontaneity Hana jerked the mech’s arm. The sudden movement sent Boss flying into the sand a few meters away. Sputtering, she brushed the dirt off herself and lobbed a fistful of it at Hana. Hana blocked it with the defense matrix.

“Oh look at you, Miss Big Fancy Mech Pilot.” Boss leaned against the leg of the mech. “But, uh…why’re you hitting yourself?”

“Huh?”

Boss disappeared. A moment later the mech started bopping itself on the ‘head’ with one arm. Hana exhaled, trying to look annoyed as the mech drummed on itself. Her façade was broken when the mech started “dancing” – or more like stomping in a circle while wildly swinging its arms around. Hana plopped her forehead down on the dashboard, trying to conceal her smirk, and let Boss continue to screw around with the mech. It hopped through the sand like some kind of massive metal rabbit, forcing Hana to hold on with all her might to avoid falling out. “You are such a nerd,” she yelled through her poorly-contained laughter.

Finally the mech settled down, and Boss appeared in front of it, still wearing that cocky smile.

“All right,” Hana sighed, “that was funny.”

“Don’t throw me into the sand again, bitch. I’ll do worse next time.”

“Oh, so tough.” Hana leaned the mech down to her level, as condescending as possible. “Pretty hard to be intimidated by someone who’s kissed my butt, literally.”

Boss kicked the leg of the mech. “You said we wouldn’t speak of that.”

With a giggle, Hana scooped Boss back up and brought her close to the cockpit. “Okay, fine. Let’s just go to Junkertown, then.”

“You gonna tell everyone there about our sexual exploits?”

“Just a few people, probably.”

“Just a few? Damn, girl, I want _everyone_ to know I’m fucking Hana Song. I’ll shout it across the whole outback.”

“And I’ll throw you across it.” Hana started the mech up, holding Boss high in the air to prove a point. Boss squirmed with laughter. “C’mon you big dork, we’re going to Junkertown.”

* * *

 

What was now called Junkertown was vastly different from the relatively organized old prison-dwelling community Boss had tried to establish. It was more like an actual town now, though a garishly dystopian one –  abandoned buildings taken over and rebuilt with shoddy plywood and scrap metal, the streets little more than sand with handmade signs stuck into it, everything covered in graffiti and various painted warnings to outsiders. Some of the Junkers seemed to prefer open-air dwellings to the crumbling buildings, or perhaps simply weren’t allotted that luxury. Tarps propped up on rusty poles popped up occasionally on the side of the pseudo-roads, almost always with a Junker watching them from within, a weapon in hand, ready to defend the dingy scraps they had amassed in their sad little dwelling. Boss passed them with nary a glance. Hana followed her lead, trying to ignore them.

“Don’t the Junkers hate you?” she’d thought to ask at one point. “At least the ones from the prison?”

“I guess they’re over it. Or maybe they don’t remember me. I don’t know. I’ve seen some familiar faces around here, and they always act like they’ve never interacted with me before.”

“I guess as long as you have stuff to offer…” Satya’s hard light goods were extremely popular in the crime town, Boss had said back when she’d first started trading with them again. The Junkers either didn’t know or didn’t care how fragile the items were. The fact that Satya could make nearly anything gave their little trio a huge advantage when trading for more mundane but necessary items like food and water. It was definitely the reason they were able to thrive out in the desert, away from the rest of humanity.

The mech attracted attention. Hana paused at a sound behind her. The sand obscured footsteps, but she could definitely hear something. Boss was on it in a second. Drawing her machete from its loop on her waist, she darted around behind Hana. Hana clumsily turned the mech in time to see two Junkers backing away from them. Hana recognized one of them – it was the animal-skull-wearing Junker that had once guarded the prison. Their skull was filthy, as was the rest of them – they really looked worse for the wear. They had also seemingly undergone more mutations. Their nails had blackened and grown out to full-length claws, and the excess hair on their body had all but consumed them. They more closely resembled a cheap horror movie werewolf than a human being now.

“Stay away from us.” Boss jabbed the machete toward them. The Junkers backed down. As they moved Hana noticed the skull-wearing Junker had to adjust the skull to prevent it from slipping – their neck was pathetically scrawny now, and under the fur it appeared their body was just as skeletal. The other Junker didn’t look much better. He was covered in scars and had a glassed-over eye. He looked far too old to be out in this mess.

“They look like they’re starving,” Hana whispered as she stepped in close to Boss.

“Yeah, everyone’s starving out here. Starving for whatever they can get out of you.”

The sack in the cockpit of the mech, full of items they’d brought in the event of finding a friendly face to trade with, had a bit of food in it. Off the top of Hana’s head she knew they had a bag of _matthi_ – some sort of spiced Indian crackers Satya had apparently procured while she was borrowing supplies from her questionably-still-so employer. They also had some crickets, and the sinewy meat of a rabbit that Hana and Satya couldn’t quite chew through.

Before Boss could stop her Hana reached in the bag, pulled out a handful of crickets, and leaned out of the mech to offer them to the other Junkers. The look on Boss’ face nearly stopped her, but she went through with the offer anyway.

The animalistic Junker scampered over to her. They looked down at her hand, and then up at her face, clearly hesitant.

“Take it,” Hana said. “It’s a – a gesture of good will.”

That was all the encouragement the Junker needed. They grabbed the bugs out of Hana’s hand and dropped half into the palm of the older man. He stuffed them in his mouth and devoured them in one go. The skull-wearing Junker, however, hunkered down a few meters away. Facing away from the others, they removed their skull to eat. A cascade of strawberry blonde hair fell past their shoulders. They devoured the crickets just as rapidly as the man they were with. Then they sat on their haunches, licking the claws of their fingers.

Boss was still staring at Hana, but she did not say anything.

As soon as they had devoured their offering, the two Junkers started to approach Hana again. For the first time, Hana saw the face of the skull-wearing Junker – it was a girl, and a young-looking one at that. She couldn’t have been any older than eleven or twelve. Her mouth was full of fangs far larger and more animalistic than Hana’s had ever been, to the point where they were clearly malforming her jaw. But it was her flesh that was the most horrific in appearance. The majority of the skin of her face was simply missing, as if it had been torn, or melted, right off her skull. Her nose was little more than exposed cartilage, and there were holes in her cheeks that led right to the inside of her mouth.

Boss’ expression changed upon seeing the Junker’s face. She still held her weapon out, but it was with a much less aggressive stance.

“You’ve been through a lot,” Hana murmured, “haven’t you?”

The girl opened her mouth, but instead of words, all that emerged was a weak, airy hiss, like escaping steam. The man simply grunted, apparently not much for talking, either.

“We don’t all have to be assholes here.” Hana avoided looking at anyone in particular when making her statement. “Just because we’re Junkers doesn’t mean we have to be cold-hearted criminals _all_ the time.”

The young girl Junker looked her up and down, an unreadable look in her eyes. Then she dashed off through the sand, into one of the tarp-huts a stretch away from them. The man followed her.

Hana’s eyes slid briefly over to meet Boss’. Quickly looking away again, she said, “I couldn’t help it. They were starving.”

Boss nodded. “I know. That’s who you are.”

The girl returned a moment later with something in hand. She held it out to Hana.

It took Hana only a moment to recognize it. “This is…Ana’s mask.” With cautious hands she reached out and accepted the weathered gas mask. “This is what Ana was wearing the first time I met her. When she was just ‘The Wastelander’.” Back when the prison fell Ana had mentioned it disappearing from her cell. This must have been the Junker who took it. Looking at the girl’s face, Hana could see why she would want to keep it covered.

“I didn’t have anything left of her.” Hana tucked the mask carefully into her bag. “Thank you. This means more than you know.”

It didn’t take long for the girl to have her precious animal skull back on, and as soon as she did she scurried off. The man followed after her. Once they were some distance away he said something to the girl. Hana could only pick up the words “be more careful” and “strangers”. _I wonder if he’s looking out for her like Ana did for me._

After traveling a few more minutes, Hana couldn’t resist looking the mask over again. She paused the mech, drawing Boss’ attention. “Hm?”

Hana affixed the mask to her own face. It smelled like dirt, probably because it was lying in it for who knew how long. The lenses over the eyes were tinted, reducing some of the sun’s intensity on her dry eyes, and preventing bits of flying sand from scraping them. _Huh. No wonder Ana wore it everywhere._

It didn’t seem to filter out all of the sand and dust in the air, but Hana had to assume the filters hadn’t been changed in ages.

“Uh, okay.” Boss rubbed her chin. “It _does_ hide your baby face. Maybe around here that’d be a good thing.”

They wandered the sandy wastes for a long while after that without coming across a single other Junker. “Where is everyone?” Boss eventually said. “Usually there are Junkers scattered all over the place…”

Something exploded in the distance. A flurry of sand kicked up like a tornado from whatever had just happened, raining down and then calming again. “Huh, must be someone over _there_ at least.” Boss climbed up onto the mech. “Wanna check that out?”

Hana steered the mech toward the noise. It was an odd-sounding explosion, not really like a bomb. It almost sounded more like something heavy had made impact with the ground.

A Junker in nothing but shorts and a backpack appeared on the horizon. He was running towards them – away from the odd explosion. “Hey, what’s going on?” Boss tried to ask him, but he did not stop to answer them.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be heading that way after all,” Hana mumbled through the mask.

“Yeah, maybe not.”

They hadn’t even managed to turn around when something sprang up into the air, propelled by a stream of jet smoke. “Oh shit!” Boss ducked behind the nearest boulder, then gestured for Hana to join her. Hana crouched the mech down beside Boss, but it was poorly hidden behind the comparatively small rock.

The thing – human? Omnic? Something else entirely? – landed not far from them, kicking up the same burst of sand that they’d seen a few minutes before. This time when the dust settled Hana was able to get a decent look at it. A tall, menacing figure in a shining blue suit of armor with jagged, pointed metal wings loomed over the wreckage of Junkertown’s center. Its upper face was obscured by a helmet’s protruding golden visor, one that conjured an almost bird-like image. The lower half of its face appeared human, not omnic.

“I know _someone_ here has answers.” The voice of the armored figure was husky but distinctly feminine, with an accent that was not Australian, yet sounded somewhat familiar to Hana’s ears. “I am _not_ leaving until I get them.”

Hana slipped out of the mech to duck as low as possible to the ground. Boss laid her body over hers, covering her as best she could. Hana hoped the other girl couldn’t feel her trembling. _Oh God, please don’t be someone from Vishkar._

The figure stomped through the sand with heavy footfalls, wielding some sort of heavy-duty-looking weapon. The helmet obscured their eyes, but Hana could see them scanning the landscape. When they turned in the direction of Hana and Boss their disposition changed. They swooped over and landed in a torrent of thrown sand right beside them.

“You there,” she all but shouted at them, maintaining a rigid, unwavering posture as she stood over them, “What do you know about a woman named Ana?”

The question caught Hana off-guard. _Ana? Why does she want to know about Ana? Unless–_ She reached up and involuntarily touched the mask on her face. _Oh no. This lady must think I robbed Ana and took her stuff._

She pulled the mask off and tried to think of something to say. Before she could think of an explanation the woman seized her by her jacket collar and pulled her clean off the ground. “Answer me!”

Boss grabbed Hana by her hips and yanked her out of the stranger’s grip. “Who’s asking?” she hissed.

The woman stared at them, her expression unreadable through her visor. Then she reached up and pulled the helmet off, tossing her hair and, in the process, fully exposing her face to them.

Hana gasped.  “You’re…Fareeha.”

“Whoa, what?” Boss stared up at the woman in disbelief. “Ana’s daugher?”

She bore a tattoo similar to Ana’s, but Hana wouldn’t have needed that to know this woman was Ana’s daughter. They shared an uncanny resemblance in the face, especially in the eyes – Ana may have only had one, but it was always alight with emotion, even when her outward demeanor seemed apathetic. Fareeha was apparently the exact same way. Despite her confrontational posture, from her eyes Hana read not aggression or malice, but desperation. Anger. Maybe a little hurt.

“So you’re familiar with my mother,” she said. Even her tone was like Ana’s, leading the listener to give her the information she desired while carefully refraining from revealing too much of her own hand.

“We know her,” Hana replied. “She was with us up until just a couple months ago, when she told me she was heading back to Egypt to find you.”

The woman clenched a fist. Her teeth were exposed in a snarl, but it was not directed at Hana or Boss. “So it’s really true. All this time she was lying to me.”

“She never went back to you?” Hana frowned. “She said she was going to…”

Fareeha reached into a small pouch strapped to her waist and produced a fistful of yellowed papers. “I’ve been getting these weird letters from someone claiming to be her. In one of them she mentioned the Junkers. I had to figure out what and where you guys even were – it was my _only_ lead. And now you’re telling me my mother really _was_ here, that she really _is_ still alive, but now she’s disappeared again and I have no idea where she is.” She crushed the papers in her armored fist. “Ugh, why is she _always_ like this?!”

Unsure how to respond, Hana and Boss both stared at her for a while. Eventually Boss said, “So is your Dad, like, _super_ tall, or…?”

Fareeha cut her off with a sharp exhalation, as though she’d heard the question a billion times before. Hana shook her head curtly at Boss. Boss shrugged.

“I’m sorry Ana didn’t show up in person to tell you about herself,” Hana said. “If it makes you feel any better, the night before she left she spent the whole night telling me about you. She’s really proud of you.”

“She doesn’t even know me.” Fareeha crossed her arms. “If she cared about me at all she wouldn’t have screwed off and let me think she was dead for _five years_.”

“That’s, uh–” Boss cleared her throat, garnering the attention of the two other women. “I mean, that’s not necessarily true. My parents think I’m dead, and it’s not because I don’t care about them. I just…don’t know how to go back to that life after everything I’ve been through out here. I feel like letting them think I’m dead might be for the best.”

“That’s different. You’re the kid. It’d be a whole different story if your parents faked their own deaths and left you, their child, all alone.”

“I guess you have a point.”

“Ana told me she didn’t know what to say to you after all these years. I walked in the night before she left and found her crying over a picture of you.” Hana held Ana’s mask in her filthy gloved hands, running her fingers idly over its scratched surface. “She loves you so much.” Her eyes narrowed a bit as she stared down at it. “I mean, you are her _real_ daughter.”

Boss must have picked up on her tone. Out of the corner of her eye Hana caught the other girl looking over at her with a slight frown.

Fareeha apparently didn’t miss it, either. With a huff she said, “Oh you can _have_ her, Junker. I’m done with her games.” She cracked her back and glanced up into the hazy sky. “Ugh, can’t believe I actually thought she might be where she said she was for once in my life. I wasted all this time and fuel flying out to an radioactive explosion zone just to get told she isn’t even–”

“ _Rwaurgh!_ ”

With a heavy _clang_ something struck Fareeha in the back of the head, knocking her down into the dirt. Her collapse revealed Satya behind her, panting. In her hands she wielded what looked like some sort of beat-up oxygen tank from God knew where.

“Oh my God!” Hana covered her mouth with one hand. “You knocked out Ana’s daughter!”

“Ana’s daughter??” Satya dropped the makeshift weapon to the sand at her feet. “I thought she was brutalizing you! I saw her grab you and shake you!”

Boss knelt down beside Fareeha. The woman was sprawled out in the sand, unresponsive. With two fingers Boss searched for a pulse in her neck. “She’s alive, but yeah, she’s out cold.”

“Why are you even here, Satya?” Hana tried not to snap at her, but largely failed. “I thought you were guarding our house!”

“I know, I–” She wrung the fabric of her dress. “I just couldn’t let you go without checking on you. I teleported here just to keep an eye on you from afar. I wasn’t going to intervene, but then I saw this woman seize you, and I…”

“You decided to knock her out with a gas tank,” Boss finished. “Totally understandable.”

“…I am sorry, girls. I should have trusted you.” Satya knelt beside Boss and looked Fareeha over. “I suppose we should bring her home with us until she is well again?”

“Who’s gonna carry her?”

A few minutes later Hana had the woman tied to the back of the mech with ropes and the winch from the truck bumper. Fareeha’s large size combined with the weight of her armor slowed the mech down considerably. “Jeez,” Hana mumbled as she pushed the control sticks as far forward as they would go, “how did Ana pop out such a huge freaking kid anyways? She was only a little bit taller than me…”

Satya was eyeing Fareeha as they walked. “Nice symmetrical features,” she murmured to herself at one point, “ugh, except for that tattoo.”

“Yeah, she’s surprisingly, uh…” Boss cleared her throat. “In the presence of my girlfriend I’m not at liberty to finish that sentence.”

Hana rolled her eyes, a little smile crossing her lips. Boss just _loved_ using that term. They’d never even technically made their affair an official thing, but one day Boss used the g-word while talking to Satya, and then it started slipping more and more into their conversations. It _was_ fitting for what they had, she supposed, although sometimes they felt more like an old married couple than anything else.

It took them forever just to reach the teleporter Satya had constructed for herself. “How long were you following us, anyway?” Hana asked. Satya shrugged meekly, her silence quite telling.

Hana managed to squeeze the mech through the teleporter without losing Fareeha in the process. Boss emerged just behind her, and then Satya closed the path up behind them. They found themselves in Satya’s chambers. After dismounting her from the mech, Hana lay Fareeha down on Satya’s massive bed. The three of them gathered around and stared down at her.

“So…” Boss said, “what now?”

“I suppose we should simply let her rest here until she awakens…”

Something dripped off the bedsheet, leaving a tiny, pale blue splotch on the spotless floor. Making a face, Hana opened her mouth to say something about it, but stopped short when she saw Boss and Satya staring at a trail of splotches leading back to where the teleporter had been.

Carefully, Hana rolled Fareeha onto her side. “Oh.”

A crack across the surface of one of her wings oozed with the translucent liquid. It had a strong smell to it, like…fuel. “Oh no.”

“What’s that?” Boss leaned in beside Hana. She must have picked up on the scent as well, because she quickly answered her own question. “Is that, like…the fuel she mentioned?”

“The fuel she mentioned not having a lot of after wasting it all traveling here.”

Satya remained quiet. Hana struggled to sit Fareeha up enough to try to gauge just how empty her fuel tanks were. No more fuel dripped out. “Hm. There’s nothing else coming out.”

“Great.” Boss ran a hand through her hair and exhaled. “Where are we gonna get jet fuel or whatever out here in the freaking boonies?”

“ _Ungh._ ”

Hana and Boss both jumped back as Fareeha’s hand settled on her forehead. She slowly pulled her eyelids apart, groaning low in her throat as she did so.

Hana attempted a nervous smile at her. “Oh, hey…feeling better?”

She sat the rest of the way up and looked around, blinking several times. “Where the hell am I?” Her tone took on a note of panic. “What did you do to me??” She immediately reached for her weapon, but Hana and Boss stood in front of it.

“Our friend Satya thought you were threatening us,” Boss explained, her tone far too casual for the look on Fareeha’s face. “So she, uh, knocked you unconscious.”

“My...apologies.” Satya nodded at her. “Although I am not sorry for defending my charges. I am under strict orders to ensure the safety of these girls – your mother’s orders, actually.”

Fareeha snatched up her helmet and put it back on. “Whatever. I got what I came here for, which was basically nothing. I’m taking off.” She got up off the bed, spurring another few droplets of fuel to drip out onto the floor. That gave her pause. “What’s this?”

“Oh, um…” Hana looked to Boss. Boss shrugged.

“Oh my God.” Fareeha straightened up. “This is my jet fuel!”

“Oh, is it?” Boss’ acting could not have been worse. Hana dragged a hand down the side of her face.

“You sabotaged my fuel tank!” Suddenly Fareeha rushed at Satya, pinning her against the far wall of the room.

“I most certainly did _not_!” Satya pushed her off. Either she was a lot stronger than Hana realized or Fareeha wasn’t really putting her full strength into it, because she stumbled backward at Satya’s push. “How dare you accuse me of such a thing!”

To Hana’s surprise, Fareeha’s scowl eased just a little. “…Sorry,” she said, lifting the visor on her mask so her eyes were visible. “If the roles were reversed I guess I would have attacked you, too.” She exhaled sharply as she turned away.

Satya brushed the dust off her dress and huffed.

“So I don’t know where we’d be able to find jet fuel around here.” Boss stepped between them, subtly breaking up any potential escalation of the situation. “It takes Satya a while to build up enough energy to craft a teleporter and she just used one, so we can’t just–”

“Teleporter?” Fareeha interrupted. “I thought the Junkers were just a glorified biker gang.”

“No, we’re survivors. And Satya’s got all sorts of cool talents.”

Fareeha looked Satya up and down. Satya wrung her hands and stood as tall as she could. “If you’ve got all these talents, why are you living out in this hellhole?”

Satya folded her arms, somehow managing to look down her nose at Fareeha despite the other woman’s significant height advantage. “It has its charms.”

“Is that why my mother decided to run away here?”

Satya shrugged dismissively.

“Maybe someone in Junkertown would know where we can get jet fuel,” Hana piped up. “I mean, it’s kind of a long shot, but…”

“The omnium probably has all sorts of fuel and stuff,” Boss added. “Maybe not jet fuel, but probably _something_ that could–”

“Or she could remain here until I can construct another teleporter.” Satya didn’t even let Boss finish. It was like she was just waiting to voice her suggestion.

Fareeha sat back down on the bed, her elbows on her knees. “How long will that take?”

“Oh, she can usually built them pretty quick,” Hana said, “maybe like a day or–”

“A week,” Satya said.

Hana raised an eyebrow. “A week?”

“Perhaps two weeks.”

Hana glanced over at Boss. Boss returned her look. Neither of them said anything – partly because Hana, at least, had no idea what to say. Her teleporters didn’t take that long to make. What the heck was she up to?

“Two weeks??” Fareeha took her helmet back off to massage her temples. “I can’t miss that much work! Is there any kind of transportation that comes through here? Or where’s the nearest airport?”

“There’s no transportation around here,” Boss said. “We’re in the middle of the desert.”

“Well then I’m going to call for help.” She produced a cell phone from the same small pouch that had held Ana’s letters. “Someone from my squad will be willing to come get me, or…”

Neither Hana nor Boss needed to ask why she trailed off. The rural outback, especially in the wake of the nuclear explosion clearing every last sane person out of the area, was a complete dead zone for both wi-fi and phone service.

Fareeha tossed the phone onto the bed. “Okay, well, _someone_ will come looking for me. It won’t take two weeks.”

“Yeah, uh,” Hana nudged Satya, “can we maybe talk to you for a second? Privately?”

Satya looked over at Fareeha. The other woman was staring down at the floor, ignoring them. “Um, all right.”

She, Hana, and Boss all stepped out of the room. Hana quietly closed the door behind them.

“Two weeks?” Boss folded her arms. “Since when?”

Satya did not make eye contact with either of them. “…What do you mean?”

Hana pursed her lips. “Satya, no offense, but you’re really, _really_ bad at being sneaky.”

“Sneaky? I am not being sneaky!”

Hana folded her arms alongside Boss. The two of them stared at her with bemused expressions. Satya tugged at the neckline of her dress.

“You know you can just be honest with us, right?” Boss said. “We’re not gonna judge you for whatever you’re trying to do.”

Satya looked to Hana, seemingly for confirmation. Hana nodded. With lowered eyes she said, “…I grew excited at the possibility of having someone of my own age around to associate with.” She ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back and away from her face. “That’s all.”

“ _Did_ you purposely damage her fuel tank?” Hana asked.

“No, I swear I did not.” Her eyes widened. “You must believe me, I lied about the teleporter but I would never intentionally sabotage an innocent person.”

“Okay, I believe you.”

Satya’s hair fell back in front of her, shielding her from the two girls staring her down. “I acted impulsively. I am setting a terrible example for you girls.” She continued to fidget a bit. “I was simply excited by the prospect of having a new friendly face around. I mean, not just because of her face…though it is nice…”

Hana tried to get a feel for what Boss was thinking about the subject. Before she could garner any information from her, however, Boss leaned back towards the door to Satya’s bedroom. “So, it’s really gonna take you two weeks to build that teleporter, huh?” She spoke loudly, easily loud enough to be heard through the door.

“What? No, I just wanted to buy some more time–”

Hana immediately caught on to Boss. “Wow, it could even take you _three_ weeks? Or _more_?” She raised her voice as well. “Well I guess Fareeha will just have to stay with us until then. We can take care of her. And maybe you two will hit it off.” She punctuated her statement with a wink.

Satya shook her head. “Girls, no, we cannot–”

The door opened. Fareeha loomed in the doorway, her gaze sweeping over each of the girls in turn. Satya froze, her hands quivering slightly as she clutched them together.

“Sorry Fareeha,” Hana spoke up, “it’s gonna take a while to build this teleporter. But in the meantime you’re welcome to stay with us!”

“Satya’s really nice by the way,” Boss chimed in, “and cool. Just sayin’.”

Fareeha was still studying Satya. Her dark eyes held no malice – rather they appeared to hold more intrigue than anything else. “I guess this was my own stupid fault for flying out here without any backup plan,” she murmured. “When I got the letter from Mother I just acted without thinking.”

“It shouldn’t take that long,” Satya cut in. “I can most likely have you back in a day or two, I swear.”

“Wait, a day or two? I thought you said two weeks.”

“I can do it faster than that.”

“I see.” Fareeha massaged the back of her neck. Then, with a tiny chuckle, she added, “This is going to sound weird, but I was almost warming up to the idea of a two-week vacation from work. And a chance to see where Mother was living all this time.” She shrugged her broad shoulders. “Ah well.”

Satya blinked. “Wait. You _want_ to stay here?”

“No, no. It’s fine.” Fareeha waved her off. “I’ll go back.”

“You should stay a while!” Hana looked up at her with wide, pleading eyes. “We can tell you all about what happened to us and your mom over the past couple months.”

“How about you stay for, like, a few days at least?” Boss asked. “We can catch you up on stuff. Then you can go back.”

Fareeha eyed them for a moment. “How do I know you’re not just gonna knock me out again?”

“Don’t we look trustworthy?” Hana mustered her best innocent smile. Boss did the same.

“You look like you’d sell me out for a good shower.”

Both girls couldn’t help but laugh at that. Surprisingly, Fareeha cracked a smile as well. _She’s not half as intimidating as she looks._

“Come on.” Hana gestured for Fareeha and the others to follow her. “Let’s hang out in the living room for a while. I’ll tell you everything there.”

* * *

 

The living room of the house-castle was basically the only “homey” room in the whole place, and that was largely because it had real, actual furniture scavenged and traded for rather than solidified light shaped into chairs. Fareeha immediately took up residence on their torn-up couch, laying her feet on the far armrest so as to take up the entire length of it. Hana and Boss settled into the dingy loveseat they’d scavenged from an abandoned house. Satya dragged over a chair to join them. Hana thought about offering her a spot on the loveseat, but it was really only meant for two people. Satya did not complain, though. She took a seat beside them and continued studying Fareeha, who was visibly trying not to acknowledge that she was being stared at.

“So how did you come across my mother out here, anyway?” Fareeha eventually asked.

“Well, it’s kind of a long story,” Hana replied, looking to Boss. The other girl seemed content to let Hana tell the tale.

“I’m gonna be here for a few days at least. I have time for a long story.” She sat up a little, her eyes alert and searching. “Besides, I want to know _everything_ you know about her. It might give me a clue where she is now.”

“Okay.” Hana inhaled, stalling to think of a good beginning to her tale. “Well, when the omnium blew up I ended up all alone – my parents…” She trailed off, as Fareeha seemed to get what she meant without her having to say it outright. “Anyway, these two guys found me, and they showed me to where they were staying. It was an abandoned old prison building. My very first walk through it I came across this scary-looking person in a cloak with a gas mask on, cleaning a sniper rifle with a rag. They looked up at me, and I was terrified.”

Fareeha simply listened, paying clear attention to every word Hana said. Satya was listening curiously as well. Hana had yet to fill her in on all the tiny details of her life before Vishkar. This was the first she was hearing of some of it.

Hana smiled wistfully as she recalled her first real encounter with Ana. “She seemed so intimidating, but then she was so nice to me. We went out for a supply run together, and she wouldn’t talk to me at first, but she couldn’t stay quiet when I called the Junkers my friends. She warned me to be careful around them. She told me I was too naïve to be hanging around people like them. And then she said, ‘Hana, you are _so_ much cooler than my real daughter.’”

“What??”

Hana grinned. “Just making sure you still were paying attention.”

“Did she mention me at all?” Fareeha feigned a casual tone, but it was clear she was genuinely concerned about the answer.

“Oh yeah, all the time! She told me that you were in the military, and that you wanted to protect people like she did.”

Fareeha turned to stare up at the high ceiling of the living room. “Did she…” Her voice was low, a murmur. “Did she sound like she was proud of me?”

Hana nodded enthusiastically. “The last night we spent together she told me you were brave and strong, just like she raised you to be. I guess she didn’t really want you to follow in her footsteps, but even still, when she talked about you she couldn’t have been any prouder.” Hana swallowed the complicated ball of emotions that settled in her throat and chest. _She’s been without a mom longer than I have. Ana is her mother, not mine._

Fareeha remained quiet. Hana leaned over to try to get a look at her face, to gauge her reaction. Suddenly Fareeha sat up. She dragged the back of one hand across her eyes and jumped up off the couch, storming off. “Wait! Fareeha, where are you going?” Hana pursued her to the doorway of the living room, where Fareeha paused. “Are you okay?”

Fareeha’s hands balled into fists. She did not turn around.

Uncertain how to proceed, Hana reached out and lightly touched the thick metal armor encasing Fareeha’s body. That spurred Fareeha to turn around, and as soon as she did, Hana saw that her eyes were damp.

“I just…” Fareeha ground her teeth. “I thought she was dead! All these years…”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Hana laid a gentle hand on her arm. “Do you want to hear the rest of the story? We went through a lot, and it’s pretty interesting – or at least I think it is.”

Fareeha sniffed, making a momentous effort to hide her tears despite it being pretty damn clear that Hana saw them. “All right. Tell me the rest of the story, Junker.”

“It’s Hana.”

“Right, okay. Tell me the rest of the story, Hana.”

Hana led her back to the couch. “All of the stuff at the prison was _nothing_ compared to when we got kidnapped by an international megacorporation and transported to India...”

“What? You did?”

“Yeah, it was crazy! Me, Nessa, your mom, and the guys we were traveling with were trying to get a boat out of Australia, when all of a sudden this huge freaking _army_ of people shows up with all these weapons and stuff…oh, but I didn’t tell you about how the prison fell, which _got_ us looking for a boat in the first place, sorta. So we were in the prison with all these nasty, scary criminal types…”

Fareeha listened intently as Hana wove her story semi-chronologically, like a very rough, winding river with several chunks missing due to memory damage. Boss filled in some of the missing spots, and when they came to talking about Vishkar Satya added in some information. They remained gathered there for hours recounting the tale, with Fareeha occasionally asking questions or making commentary. It didn’t take long for Hana to realize that, although she was Ana’s daughter, Fareeha was different in a lot of ways. Unlike her mother, who tended to be more elusive and reserved, she didn’t shy away from making her opinions known. But _like_ her mother she had a warmth to her eyes that grew only more evident as Hana relayed their entire story to her.

“My God,” she uttered once Hana had summed up all that they had experienced, “you’ve been through a lot.”

Hana shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Knowing all that I really can’t blame you for attacking me out there. I’d be attacking everything that moved, too.”

“Well we are usually a _bit_ more civilized than that,” Satya replied. “That was an atypical situation.”

Fareeha rubbed her head. “Well for someone who doesn’t usually do things like that you’ve really got an arm. Uh, I mean–” Her eyes flicked to Satya’s prosthetic arm, then away from it just as quickly. “I didn’t mean–”

Satya chuckled. “I understand.”

“I beat a guy up with that arm before,” Hana couldn’t resist adding in.

“Mhm, and I never could quite get that blood stain off.” Satya examined her forearm. A few darkened splotches were still visible on its otherwise bright white surface.

“See, aren’t you glad you stayed to talk to us?” Boss shrugged at Fareeha. “We’re pretty interesting.”

“Yeah, I guess you are.” Fareeha crossed her arms and smirked. “But I _was_ in the military, so I’ve got quite a few stories of my own.”

Hana perked up a little. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

Fareeha started to say something, but cut herself off. Something in the distance, getting closer, was making a bizarre noise. Boss flew off the couch and took off running – but it was too late. Fareeha raised an eyebrow as she stared out into the hallway. “Is that a lizard?”

“What?” Satya got up to follow Boss, but Hana cut in front of her.

“Stay here, we’ll be right back!” Hana slammed the living’s room door behind her as she ran out.

With Hana and Boss gone, Satya and Fareeha were left in an awkward silence. Fareeha cleared her throat and tried to find something interesting to stare at. Satya crossed one leg over the other and examined her fingernails.

After it became apparent than the girls were not immediately returning, Fareeha made a small noise in her throat, attracting Satya’s attention. “So, um…” She still managed to avoid looking directly at the other woman. “My mother told you to look after those two girls?”

Satya nodded.

“That’s a pretty high compliment. She doesn’t trust people very easily.”

“I am not sure how much she trusts me, in all honesty. She all but threatened me into the arrangement.”

At that Fareeha smiled a little. “Yeah, that sounds like her.”

They both laughed. Then Satya said, “Well, for all her… _oddities_ , she seems to have raised a pleasant enough daughter.”

“Heh, uh, thanks.” Fareeha sat up a little straighter, still looking around at anything but Satya. “You know, this place isn’t too bad. Maybe I found a new vacation spot.”

“Well, you are welcome here anytime.”

The living room door flew open again. Boss and Hana slinked back into the room.

“What was going on out there?” Satya asked. “Is everything all right?”

“Oh, yeah.” Boss waved her off. “Yeah. It was, uh, nothing.”

“Did you get the giant lizard out?” Fareeha said.

“Lizard?? There wasn’t any lizard.” Hana’s reply came a bit too quickly to be believable, but she had to follow up on it. “I, uh, left Ness’ jacket on the floor.”

Fareeha raised an eyebrow. Her lips parted slightly, as if she were about to protest or question the girls further, but to Hana’s relief she backed down.

Boss didn’t waste the opportunity to change the subject. “So, uh, anybody hungry?” She looked to Fareeha. “We’ve got a solar-powered kitchen that can cook stuff. According to Hana and Satya my cooking is pretty good.”

Fareeha looked to Satya. “You don’t mind me taking some of your food–?”

“Not at all. We have enough.”

“Well then I guess I’ll join you guys.” Fareeha climbed up off the couch. She paused in front of Satya. A warm, easy smile graced her lips. “Thanks.”

Satya’s shoulders tensed as she stared up at the other woman. “…Of course. Think nothing of it.”

With that Boss led Fareeha off to the kitchen. Satya watched them walk away, and only once they were gone did she seem to notice Hana was staring at her.

“What?” she sputtered, quickly pretending she was observing something else.

Hana smirked at her, saying nothing.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Oh, no reason.”

With a frown Satya reached over and took Hana’s face in both hands. With her thumbs she pushed Hana’s grin down into a neutral expression. As soon as her hands left Hana’s face, however, the grin returned.

“So,” Hana said, “you like her?”

“Fareeha? She seems all right.”

“Just ‘all right’, huh?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, nothing.”

They stared each other down for a minute. Hana couldn’t help but let a tiny smirk form on her lips again. “So when’s the wedding?”

Satya scooped her up and threw her down onto the couch. “I will not hesitate to invoke my sisterly privilege and put you in your place,” she said as she plunked herself down squarely on Hana’s back.

“Ahhh!” Hana squirmed beneath her. “All right, all right, I surrender! You win!”

“Hm.” Satya examined her fingernails. “I am awfully comfortable here. Perhaps I do not feel like getting up.”

Hana faceplanted into the couch cushion. “I’m dying,” she murmured, the clarity of her words lost in the old couch’s fabric.

“Sorry? I didn’t catch that.”

Hana sighed. “I said ‘Satya is the best and coolest person I know, and also the best sister, even though I’m an only child so she doesn’t exactly have any competition there’.”

“Ah. That is what I thought you said.” Satya climbed off her, then offered Hana her hand. Hana slapped it away and got up herself. The two of them tried to scowl at each other, but it didn’t take long for the scowls to dissolve into snickers.

“Come on.” Hana pushed Satya forward a step. “They’re waiting for us.”


	21. (untitled)

(Thanks to [crooked-incisors](http://crooked-incisors.tumblr.com/) for the adorable fanart, and thank YOU, the readers, for completing this fic's journey with me!)


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